How to use deleterious in a sentence

11 example sentences · adjective

Deleterious means harmful, often in a subtle or unexpected way. Example: “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.”

Examples of deleterious by meaning

adjectiveHarmful, often in a subtle or unexpected way.

deleterious to someone's health
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

adjectiveHaving lower fitness.

A deleterious mutation

More sentences with deleterious

The knotweed of stupidism can sow deleterious ignorance of the past.2021, Otto English, Fake History, page 61. From the entry stupidism
The go·el neutralizes the deleterious effect of the blood of the slain, restoring the ecologic balance.2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 963. From the entry goel
Upon breakage the envelope is permitted to devacuate contrallably without deleterious fragmentation of its side walls.1960, Glass Technology. From the entry devacuate
"Mild hypnosedation and hypokinesia may be either beneficial, as they facilitate nursing, or deleterious, as they impair intellectual and psychomotor skills."1974, Stuart Fielding, Harbans Lal, Michael J. Antonaccio, Neuroleptics: Industrial pharmacology. From the entry hypnosedation
They were accused of containing cadmium and selenium, two minerals which might be poisonoous or deleterious to lipstickers.1940 May 15, “America's Makeup”, in Consumers' Guide, volume 6, number 16, page 2. From the entry lipsticker
If disturbed, deleterious changes to the code, and accordingly to the gene products (proteins), may occur resulting in mutations or even abiosis.2018, Hans-Robert Metelmann, Thomas von Woedtke, Klaus-Dieter Weltmann, Comprehensive Clinical Plasma Medicine, page 95. From the entry abiosis
Similarly, there is an increasing interest in potions and plant extracts from the science of ayurveda, preparations that have been listed to slowen the deleterious process of aging.1992, Indian Journal of Applied Psychology, volumes 29-30, page 3. From the entry slowen
On the other hand, these concepts have been applied “orthogonally” in order to maximize the expressive power of the language while trying to avoid deleterious superfluities.1968, Adriaan van Wijngaarden et al., Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 68, section 0.1.2, Orthogonal design. From the entry orthogonally

Meaning of deleterious

adjective Harmful, often in a subtle or unexpected way.
adjective Having lower fitness.

Full definition of deleterious

Questions about deleterious in a sentence

How do you use deleterious in a sentence?: Deleterious is used as an adjective. For example: “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.”
What is a short sentence with deleterious?: “A deleterious mutation”
What does deleterious mean?: Deleterious means harmful, often in a subtle or unexpected way.

Adapted from Wiktionary: deleterious (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use deleterious in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/deleterious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.