ruinous
/ˈɹuː.ɪnəs/
ruinous adjective: causing ruin; destructive, calamitous.
Adjective
ruinous (comparative more ruinous, superlative most ruinous)
- Causing ruin; destructive, calamitous.
- Extremely costly; so expensive as to cause financial ruin.
- They were forced to completely replace the roof at ruinous expense.
- We are rapidly reversing the economic calamity we inherited from the previous administration, including ruinous price increases and record-setting inflation, inflation like we've never had before.2025 September 23, Donald Trump, speech at United Nations
- Characterized by ruin; ruined; dilapidated; as, an edifice, bridge, or wall in a ruinous state.
- Synonyms:
- ramshackle
ruinous meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam
ruinous in Hindi
- destructive
- नाशक nāśak
ruinous in Tamil
- கேடான, அழிவுத்தன்மை கொண்ட, அழிவு தரக்கூடிய
ruinous in Bengali
- ruinous; leading to complete failure or collapse
- বিধ্বংসী bidhôṅśī
ruinous in Malayalam
- മുടിപ്പിക്കുന്ന, നശിപ്പിക്കാവുന്ന, തകർക്കപ്പെട്ട
More languagesFewer languages
- ruinous in Kannada
- ಅಳಿದುಹೋದ, ಮುರಿದುಬಿದ್ದ, ಅಳಿಸಬಲ್ಲ, ಕೇಡುಂಟುಮಾಡಬಲ್ಲ
Examples of ruinous in a sentence
- No doubt this momentary gain is bought at a ruinous after-cost.
- The impact of organized crime on the union movement was ruinous.
- Millions of American dollars deposited by citizens are frozen in banks, accessible only in local currency at ruinous exchange rates.
Synonyms of ruinous
Forms of ruinous
| comparative | more ruinous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most ruinous |
Origin of ruinous
From Middle English ruynous, from Old French ruinos, ruineus, from Latin ruīnōsus. By surface analysis, ruin + -ous.
Words formed from ruinous
Questions about ruinous
- What does ruinous mean?
- Ruinous means causing ruin; destructive, calamitous.
- What is ruinous in Hindi?
- Ruinous in Hindi is नाशक (nāśak). See Ruinous meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ruinous?
- Ruinous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce ruinous?
- Ruinous is pronounced /ˈɹuː.ɪnəs/.
Words near ruinous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ruinous (page history and authors); ruinous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); বিধ্বংসী (Bengali) (page history and authors); ruinous (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ruinous (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.
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Cite this entry: “ruinous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ruinous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.