destructive
Syllables: de·struc·tive/dɪˈstɹʌktɪv/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Ireland/dɪˈstɹʊktɪv/
destructive adjective: causing destruction; damaging.
Adjective
destructive (comparative more destructive, superlative most destructive)
- Causing destruction; damaging.
- The pastures are filled with gay political drop-outs, persons of reasonable intent who found the scene personally destructive.1980 August 30, David Rothenberg, “A New York State of Confusion”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 5
- After rescuing his estranged daughter in the last film, Live Free Or Die Hard, Willis heads to Russia to rescue his estranged son (Jai Courtney), a CIA agent on a mission to protect a whistleblower (Sebastian Koch) from a corrupt government official (Sergei Kolesnikov) with no shortage of...2013 February 14, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: A Good Day To Die Hard”, in The Onion AV Club
- Causing breakdown or disassembly.
- Catabolism is a destructive metabolism that involves the breakdown of molecules and release of energy.
- Lossy; causing irreversible change.
- Blurring an image is a destructive operation, but rotating an image is not.
destructive meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
destructive in Hindi
- causing destruction; damaging
- घातक ghātak, हानिकारक hānikārak, नाशक nāśak
- causing breakdown
- नाशक nāśak
destructive in Urdu
- غارتگر, مہلک, نقصان دہ
destructive in Bengali
- destructive; causing great damage or ruin
- বিধ্বংসী bidhôṅśī
- destructive; causing widespread damage or ruin
- বিধ্বংসকারী bidhôṅśôkārī
destructive in Telugu
- విధ్వంసక, వినాశకరమైనది
More languagesFewer languages
- destructive in Malayalam
- വിനാശകരമായ, നശിപ്പിക്കുന്ന, നാശത്തിനിടയാക്കുന്ന, നിഷേധാത്മകമായ
- destructive in Kannada
- ವಿನಾಶಕಾರಕ, ಹಾನಿಕಾರಕ, ಖಂಡನಾತ್ಮಕ, ರಚನಾತ್ಮಕವಲ್ಲದ
- destructive in Punjabi
- ਵਿਨਾਸ਼ਕਾਰੀ, ਤਬਾਹਕੁੰਨ
- destructive in Gujarati
- વિનાશક, વિનાશકારી
- destructive in Odia
- ବିନାଶକାରୀ
- destructive in Sanskrit
- हिंस्र hiṃsra
- destructive in Nepali
- विनाशकारी
- destructive in Tagalog
- mapanira, mapangwasak
- destructive in Persian
- مخرب
- destructive in Vietnamese
- phá hoại, huỷ diệt
Examples of destructive in a sentence
- Some think to tax wealth is destructive of a private sector.
- The violence of the storm, fortunately, was more awesome than destructive.
- A failure of one of the rocket's first-stage engines just after liftoff would result in a destructive pad fallback.
Synonyms of destructive
- calamitous
- catastrophic
- devastating
- disastrous
- eradicative
- harmful
- pernicious
- ruinous
- wrackful
- wreckful
Antonyms
Forms of destructive
| comparative | more destructive |
|---|---|
| superlative | most destructive |
Origin of destructive
From Middle English destructyve, from Middle French destructif, from Latin dēstrūctīvus, from past participle of dēstruere (“to tear down, destroy”) + -īvus.
Words formed from destructive
- angiodestructive
- antidestructive
- autodestructive
- cyclodestructive
- cytodestructive
- destructive backspace
- destructive criticism
- destructive distillation
- destructive interference
- destructively
- destructiveness
- destructive read
- destructive sorites
- destructivism
- destructivist
- destructivity
- hyperdestructive
- immunodestructive
- indestructive
- interdestructive
- macrodestructive
- neurodestructive
- nondestructive
- non-destructive read
- omnidestructive
- overdestructive
- self-destructive
- semidestructive
- superdestructive
- ultradestructive
- undestructive
Phrases with destructive
Questions about destructive
- What does destructive mean?
- Destructive means causing destruction; damaging.
- What is destructive in Hindi?
- Destructive in Hindi is घातक (ghātak), हानिकारक (hānikārak), नाशक (nāśak). See Destructive meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is destructive?
- Destructive is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce destructive?
- Destructive is pronounced /dɪˈstɹʌktɪv/ (UK).
Words near destructive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: destructive (page history and authors); destructive (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); বিধ্বংসকারী (Bengali) (page history and authors); destructive (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); destructive (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); destructive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); destructive (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); destructive (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); destructive (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); destructive (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-destructuve.wav.
Cite this entry: “destructive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/destructive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.