# harmful

Pronunciation: US say "HARM-fuhl" /ˈhɑɹmfl̩/; UK say "HAHM-fuhl" /ˈhɑːmfl̩/

## Adjective

1. Causing or likely to cause harm or damage to a person, animal, or thing.
   - Simple: Able to hurt people, animals, or things, or to cause damage.
   - _Researchers warned that the food additive could be harmful to young children._
   - _Smoking is harmful to nearly every organ in the body._

## Origin

From Middle English harmful, going back to an Old English form suggested by hearmfullīċ ("harmful, hurtful"); it is essentially "harm" plus the suffix "-ful". It is related to German harmvoll, Danish harmfuld, and Swedish harmfull.

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