detriment

/ˈdɛtɹɪmənt/

detriment noun: harm, hurt, damage.

Noun

detriment (countable and uncountable, plural detriments)

Harm, hurt, damage.
- “But marriage in secret, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch — a fatal secret. I receive money from you, and I'm suddenly asked the question, 'What's that money for?' My hands are tied; I cannot answer to the detriment of my sister, to the detriment of the family honour.”1872, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter 7, in The Possessed, archived from the original on 31 Mar 2012
- "Would it be fair to say that when it came to making trouble, you'd make up for what you didn't absolutely know . . . and to our detriment?"2011, Stephen King, 11/22/63, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, page 775
(UK, obsolete) A charge made to students and barristers for incidental repairs of the rooms they occupy.
The position or state of a planet when it is in the sign opposite its house, considered to weaken it.
- Saturn, Jupiter and Mars from their conjunction to their opposition with the Sun are Oriental, and gain two fortitudes; but from their Opposition to their Conjunction are occidental, and incur two detriments.1660, Henry More, An Explanation of the grand Mystery of Godliness, page 342
- DEJECTION [with Astrol.] said of the planets, when in their detriment, i.e. when they have lost their force or influence by reason of being in opposition to some other, which check and contract them.1730, NathanBailey, Dictionarium Britannicum
The position or state of being eclipsed, entirely dark (sable).
- Argent, a Moon in her detriment or Eclipse Sable[…]1693, Richard Blome, The Art of Heraldry … second edition, page 110
- Moon in its Detriment, or Wane1729, Abel Boyer, Le Grand théâtre de l'honneur et de noblesse (overall work in French and English), page 105
Antonyms:

in complement, in plenitude

Verb

detriment (third-person singular simple present detriments, present participle detrimenting, simple past and past participle detrimented)

(obsolete, transitive) To be detrimental to; to harm or mar.

detriment meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

detriment in Hindi

harm, hurt, damage: अपकार apkār, हानि hāni, क्षति kṣati

detriment in Urdu

detriment, loss, disadvantage, deficiency: ضرر zarar

detriment in Bengali

ক্ষতি, অপকার, ক্ষতির কারণ, ক্ষতিকর অবস্থা

More languagesFewer languages

detriment in Telugu: విరోధము virōdhamu
detriment in Malayalam: ചേതം, വിരോധം, അനിഷ്ടം, കേട്
detriment in Kannada: ಎರವು, ಕೇಡು
detriment in Persian: پتیاره petyâre

Examples of detriment in a sentence

Cryer said — which is something worth keeping in mind, he added, while you scroll through social media stories that profess the brew’s detriments.2023 January 17, Trisha Pasricha, “Is It Bad to Drink Coffee on an Empty Stomach?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the...
Mercury peregrine, and in detriment or fall, retrograde or combust, in quartile or opposition of Luna from angles, Now in motion, cadent, or in via combusta, or afflicted by Saturn or Mars, shows[…]1826, Ebenezer Sibly, A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology; Or, The Art of Foretelling Future Events and...
Eclipses that fall on a planet in detriment or fall seem to have more of an adverse effect.2004 January 1, Carol Rushman, Forecasting Your Life Events: An Art of Predictive Astrology, Motilal Banarsidass, →ISBN, page 212:
The Moon is in her detriment in Capricorn, which is opposite Cancer.2004 08, Teresa Moorey, The Little Book of Moon Magic, Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN, page 15:

All 12 example sentences with detriment

Synonyms of detriment

Antonyms

in complement
in plenitude
benefit

All synonyms and antonyms of detriment

Forms of detriment

Noun
plural	detriments
Verb
third-person singular present	detriments
present participle	detrimenting
past participle	detrimented
past	detrimented

Plural of detriment: detriments

Origin of detriment

From Old French detriement, from Latin detrimentum (“loss, damage, literally a rubbing off”), from dēterere (“to rub off, wear”), from dē- (“down, away”) + terere (“to rub”). Detriment is related to the word detritus, and built on similar foundations to the word impediment.

Words formed from detriment

Questions about detriment

What does detriment mean?: Detriment means harm, hurt, damage.
What is detriment in Hindi?: Detriment in Hindi is अपकार (apkār), हानि (hāni), क्षति (kṣati). See Detriment meaning in Hindi.
How do you use detriment in a sentence?: Cryer said — which is something worth keeping in mind, he added, while you scroll through social media stories that profess the brew’s detriments.
What part of speech is detriment?: Detriment can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce detriment?: Detriment is pronounced /ˈdɛtɹɪmənt/.
What is the plural of detriment?: The plural of detriment is detriments.

Words near detriment in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: detriment (page history and authors); detriment (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ضرر (Urdu) (page history and authors); detriment (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); విరోధము (Telugu) (page history and authors); detriment (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); detriment (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: 2026-09-02

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

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