Word.ws English Dictionary

counterproductive

/ˌkaʊntəpɹəˈdʌktɪv/

counterproductive adjective: more of a hindrance than a help.

Adjective

counterproductive (comparative more counterproductive, superlative most counterproductive)

  1. More of a hindrance than a help.
    • The curse has been Spanish ineptitude feeding Gibraltarian intransigence. Border hold-ups are counterproductive to winning hearts and minds, as were blundering Argentinian landings on the outer Falklands.2013 August 14, Simon Jenkins, “Gibraltar and the Falklands deny the logic of history”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2021
    • It's most likely that these kinds of cuts to service frequencies, train formations, and service start and finish times would cost more in revenue than they save in cost and would therefore be counterproductive.2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 25

counterproductive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

counterproductive in Hindi

प्रतिउत्पादक

counterproductive in Tamil

more of a hindrance than a help
எதிர் விளைவுகளைத்தான் etir viḷaivukaḷaittāṉ

counterproductive in Marathi

counterproductive; likely to defeat one’s own purpose
आत्मघातक ātmaghātak

counterproductive in Urdu

نقصان دہ
More languagesFewer languages
counterproductive in Bengali
বিপরীত ফলদায়ক, ক্ষতিকর
counterproductive in Malayalam
എതിർഉൽപ്പാദനക്ഷമം
counterproductive in Nepali
प्रतिउत्पादक
counterproductive in Arabic
نَتَائِج عَكْسِيَّة natāʔij ʕaksiyya
counterproductive in Indonesian
kontraproduktif

Examples of counterproductive in a sentence

  • These programs mean well, but they're just counterproductive.
  • The unrealistic habits of StudyTube have created counterproductive relationships with audiences to academia.
  • Wealthy gays were outraged by our tactics, homocrats accused us of being counterproductive.

All 13 example sentences with counterproductive

Antonyms of counterproductive

Forms of counterproductive

comparativemore counterproductive
superlativemost counterproductive

Origin of counterproductive

From counter- + productive.

Words formed from counterproductive

Questions about counterproductive

What does counterproductive mean?
Counterproductive means more of a hindrance than a help.
What is counterproductive in Hindi?
Counterproductive in Hindi is प्रतिउत्पादक. See Counterproductive meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is counterproductive?
Counterproductive is an adjective.
How do you pronounce counterproductive?
Counterproductive is pronounced /ˌkaʊntəpɹəˈdʌktɪv/.

Words near counterproductive in the dictionary

  1. counterprinciples
  2. counterproblem
  3. counterproblems
  4. counterprocess
  5. counterprocesses
  6. counterproductive
  7. counterproductively
  8. counterproductiveness
  9. counterproductivity
  10. counterprogram
  11. counterprogramme

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: counterproductive (page history and authors); counterproductive (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); आत्मघातक (Marathi) (page history and authors); counterproductive (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); counterproductive (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); counterproductive (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); counterproductive (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “counterproductive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/counterproductive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.