Word.ws English Dictionary

deleterious

UK/ˌdɛl.ɪˈtɪə̯.ɹi.əs//ˌdɛ.ləˈtɪɹ.i.əs/

deleterious adjective: harmful, often in a subtle or unexpected way.

Adjective

deleterious (comparative more deleterious, superlative most deleterious)

  1. (formal) Harmful, often in a subtle or unexpected way.
    • deleterious effects
    • deleterious to someone's health
  2. Having lower fitness.
    • A deleterious mutation

deleterious meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

deleterious in Tamil

காயப்படுத்தும், சிதைக்கும், தீங்கு விளைவிக்கும்

deleterious in Urdu

مضر, نقصان دہ, زہریلا

deleterious in Malayalam

ദോഷകരമായ, ഹാനികരമായ, അനാരോഗ്യകരമായ, ജീവനാശകമായ, വിഷകരമായ

deleterious in Kannada

ಗಾಸಿಗೊಳಿಸುವ, ತೊಂದರೆಯ

Examples of deleterious in a sentence

  • Or might it suffice him, that every wholesome growth should be converted into something deleterious and malignant at his touch?1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “chapter XV”, in The Scarlet Letter:
  • A trolleybus service was established by the London Passenger Transport Board between North Woolwich and Stratford on February 6, 1938, and had a deleterious effect on railway passenger traffic.1946 May and June, J. G. Holmes, “The North Woolwich Branch”, in Railway Magazine, page 176:

All 11 example sentences with deleterious

Synonyms of deleterious

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of deleterious

Forms of deleterious

comparativemore deleterious
superlativemost deleterious
alternative formdeletorious

Origin of deleterious

Adapted borrowing (1640s; 1582 as deletorious) of New Latin dēlētērius, dēlētōrius + -ous, from Ancient Greek δηλητήριος (dēlētḗrios, “noxious, deleterious”), from δηλητήρ (dēlētḗr, “a destroyer”), from δηλέομαι (dēléomai, “I hurt, damage, spoil, waste”). Not related to delete or deleble. Doublet of deletery.

Words formed from deleterious

Words that rhyme with deleterious

Questions about deleterious

What does deleterious mean?
Deleterious means harmful, often in a subtle or unexpected way.
What is deleterious in Tamil?
Deleterious in Tamil is காயப்படுத்தும், சிதைக்கும், தீங்கு விளைவிக்கும். See Deleterious meaning in Tamil.
How do you use deleterious in a sentence?
Or might it suffice him, that every wholesome growth should be converted into something deleterious and malignant at his touch?
What part of speech is deleterious?
Deleterious is an adjective.
How do you pronounce deleterious?
Deleterious is pronounced /ˌdɛl.ɪˈtɪə̯.ɹi.əs/ (UK).

Words near deleterious in the dictionary

  1. deleted scenes
  2. deletee
  3. deletees
  4. deleter
  5. deleteries
  6. deleterious
  7. deleteriously
  8. deleteriousness
  9. deleters
  10. deletery
  11. deletes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deleterious (page history and authors); deleterious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deleterious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deleterious (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deleterious (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-deleterious.ogg, en-au-deleterious.ogg.

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