# destructive

Pronunciation: say "di-STRUK-tiv" /dɪˈstɹʌktɪv/

## Adjective

1. Causing serious damage or ruin to whatever it affects.
   - Simple: Able to cause great damage or harm to people or things.
   - _Critics warned that the new policy would be destructive to local communities._
   - _Few habits are as destructive as ignoring small problems until they grow._
2. Causing a thing to break down or come apart into its separate pieces.
   - Simple: Causing something to break apart or fall to pieces.
   - _Cells rely on destructive metabolic pathways to split stored fats and sugars into smaller molecules._
   - _Destructive distillation heats coal without air, breaking it down into coke, tar, and gas._
3. Causing irreversible change; resulting in a loss of information that cannot be recovered.
   - Simple: Changing data or material in a way that cannot be undone.
   - _The software warns users before any destructive operation deletes the source files._
   - _Compressing an image with this format is destructive and degrades quality permanently._

## Origin

From Middle French destructif, from Latin destructivus, formed from the past participle of destruere ("to tear down, destroy") plus the suffix -ivus.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/destructive (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).