Word.ws English Dictionary

side-effect

side-effect is the alternative form of side effect.

Meaning of side effect

Noun

side effect (plural side effects)

  1. An unintended consequence, or secondary result, of any action, in addition to the main or intended consequence of that action.
    • The processing of certain raw materials - pulp and paper, oil, and alumina, for example - can have substantial environmental side effects.1987, Brundtland Report
    Synonyms:
    by-product
    1. An unintended consequence of a drug or therapy; usually an adverse effect, and not a beneficial one.
      • “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”2018 May 30, Christine Hauser, quoting Sanofi, “Roseanne Barr’s Ambien Defense Is Disputed: ‘Racism Is Not a Known Side Effect’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    2. A change a in state outside of the local environment of the function being called.
      • The Eiffel programming language is somewhat purist in insisting that functions have no side effects.

Verb

side-effect (third-person singular simple present side-effects, present participle side-effecting, simple past and past participle side-effected)

  1. (transitive) To alter as a side effect.
    • Furthermore, we are on the look-out for pre-conditions for good therapy - so as to prevent the unintended bad therapy: but our efforts are duly side-effected by lack of control over such preconditions.1980, W. de Moor, H. R. Wijngaarden, Psychotherapy, research and training, page 147
    • Local objects can further be distinguished by whether or not they are escaping from the execution of m, and non-local objects can be further distinguished by whether or not they are side-effected by a visible side-effect during the execution of m:2002, Asian Symposium on Partial Evaluation and Semantics-Based Program Manipulation

Forms of side-effect

Noun
pluralside-effects
Verb
third-person singular presentside-effects
present participleside-effecting
past participleside-effected
pastside-effected

Questions about side-effect

What does side-effect mean?
Side-effect means to alter as a side effect.
What is side-effect the alternative form of?
Side-effect is the alternative form of side effect.
What part of speech is side-effect?
Side-effect is a verb.
What is the past tense of side-effect?
The past tense of side-effect is side-effected.

Words near side-effect in the dictionary

  1. side-channels
  2. side-chick
  3. side-chicks
  4. side-dish
  5. side-dishes
  6. side-effect
  7. side-effect-free
  8. side-effected
  9. side-effecting
  10. side-effects
  11. side-eye

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: side-effect (page history and authors); side effect (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: “side-effect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/side-effect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.