Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use hurtful in a sentence

13 example sentences · adjective

Hurtful means tending to impair or damage; injurious; occasioning loss or injury. Example: “Why would you say something so hurtful? God, you are such a stirrer!”

Examples of hurtful by meaning

adjectiveTending to hurt someone's feelings; insulting; lacerating.

  • Even in the healthiest relationships, people occasionally reach down into their personal bags of known remembrances, past disagreements, and unresolved issues, and fling hurtful comments at their partners.2000, Michael Paymar, Violent No More
  • Better yet, maybe she should call and apologize for all of the rude comments she spewed in the midst of her anger—hurtful comments that should never be spoken between a wife and her husband.2006, Ryan Phillips, Fall from Grace
  • This mentality made me an incredibly hurtful person, but I wasn't concerned with how others felt about me.2012, Robin Leigh, Dear Dadd, page 38

More sentences with hurtful

  • Why would you say something so hurtful? God, you are such a stirrer!From the entry stirrer
  • He doesn't realise how hurtful his offhand remarks can be.From the entry offhand
  • Q: Why would you say such a hurtful thing that you can’t take back? A: I was just kidding.From the entry just kidding
  • As a result, decisions to clean up the environment are routinely—and inaccurately—described as hurtful to prosperity.2013, Al Gore, “Outgrowth”, in The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 163–164. From the entry Guangzhou
  • When people continue to use the 'R' word, it's hurtful," Seckler added.2010 August 20, “Jennifer Aniston slammed for using 'retard' word in interview”, in Asian News International, New Delhi. From the entry r-word
  • The patch of wall where it had been hanging a hurtful rectangle of dusty starkness.2009, Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters’ Street, Vintage (2010), page 226. From the entry starkness
  • Money-love produces many hurts, worries, pains of conscience, and hurtful temptations which result in spiritual drifting.2007, Dr. Aaron E. Lavender, Are you a Full Gospel Christian?. From the entry money-love
  • “It’s hurtful not to be well-rounded.”2025 June 25, Joseph Bernstein, “Why Did the Novel-Reading Man Disappear?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 26…. From the entry well-rounded
  • Then there are the underhanders, who seldom take responsibility for their anger but try to place the anger in hurtful ways on others.2000, Lawrence J. Crabb, Rachael Crabb, Paul Johnson, Joy Breaks for Couples: Devotions to Celebrate Marriage, page 123. From the entry underhander
  • I vainly try to assure myself that these daemoniac creatures are not gradually leading up to some new policy hurtful to the earth and its normal inhabitants.1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 7, in The Whisperer in Darkness. From the entry daemoniac

Meaning of hurtful

  1. adjective Tending to impair or damage; injurious; occasioning loss or injury.
  2. adjective Tending to hurt someone's feelings; insulting; lacerating.

Full definition of hurtful

Questions about hurtful in a sentence

How do you use hurtful in a sentence?
Hurtful is used as an adjective. For example: “Why would you say something so hurtful? God, you are such a stirrer!”
What is a short sentence with hurtful?
““It’s hurtful not to be well-rounded.””
What does hurtful mean?
Hurtful means tending to impair or damage; injurious; occasioning loss or injury.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hurtful (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.

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