Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having no adverse effect; harmless.
- adj. Not likely to offend or provoke to strong emotion; insipid.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Harmless; producing no ill effect; incapable of harm or mischief.
- Specifically In herpetology, not venomous.
Wiktionary
- adj. Harmless; producing no ill effect.
- adj. Inoffensive; unprovocative; not exceptional.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Harmless; producing no ill effect.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not causing disapproval
- adj. not injurious to physical or mental health
- adj. lacking intent or capacity to injure
Etymologies
- From Latin innocuus ("harmless"). (Wiktionary)
- From Latin innocuus : in-, not; see in-1 + nocuus, harmful (from nocēre, to harm; see nek-1 in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He noted what he called an innocuous collection of photos of junior boxing groups.”
“A speech by the president should be in innocuous exercise in civics and public discourse.”
“Explaining your challenge to something fairly innocuous is a courteous, adult thing to do.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Discourteous to Wear American Flag Images on Cinco de Mayo?
“And the writers are usually pretty darned clever about having something innocuous from the early part of the episode prove crucial at the end, like Carter’s sister’s music.”
“This is part of the Alaska program known as the innocuous sounding Permanent Fund Dividend and is the main reason why the oil companies know that Alaska residents will consistently favor oil company policies.”
Richard Arthur: Sarah Palin's Taken $125,000 Cash from Oil Companies
“Media vigilance arising from constant gate keeping has for sometime now remained futile in what media kith and kin in the learned world described as innocuous statement.”
“While many are described as innocuous, several hundred pictures, 200 to 300 by one estimate document prisoner abuse, although sources say there are multiple images of the same event.”
“B. STANTON: B.t one of the things when Christina and I talked, we said, well, let's meet at a place that is, you know, innocuous, that is, you know, it's a place that's -- either of us could leave if we decided we didn't like the person, or we couldn't trust them or that kind of thing.”
“There was a supply of innocuous story-books for the perusal of Mrs. Marston's pupils on Saturday half-holidays, innocuous, that is to say, but for the fact that they gave a completely erroneous view of life, and from them Henrietta discovered that heroines after the sixteenth birthday are likely to be pestered with adorers.”
“But the young women soon heard that their shafts passed over Kirsteen's head and fell innocuous, which is the most safe and speedy extinguisher of malice.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘innocuous’.
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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GRE
GRE Vocabs
alacrity, celerity, haste, penitent, prosaic, veracity, paucity, maintain, laconic, pugnacious, disparate, egregious and 13 more...
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Let's Talk About Family!
idiosyncrasy, acerbic, sardonic, mordant, aesthetics, prolific, discerning, eclectic, iconoclast, heterodox, disheveled, deplorable and 36 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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magoosh1
aberration, aboveboard, abysmal, ace, affable, aghast, alacrity, ambiguous, ambivalent, ameliorate, amenable, amiable and 205 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
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Barron's 1100 words you need to know ...
anomaly, arbiter, attenuate, concomitant, deleterious, dissent, efficacy, ferment, fervid, heresy, incumbent, innocuous and 7 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL I
iconoclast, idiosyncrasy, ignoble, ignominious, illicit, illusory, illustrious, imbibe, imbue, immaculate, immaterial, immolate and 155 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for innocuous.
veevi I was surprised that innocuous had survived from Latin but nocuous had not, when a friend suggested that it had, but was "noxious" instead. Interesting drift.
Oct 27, 2007