harms

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of harm.

   Researchers documented the long-term harms of untreated lead exposure.

   The new safety code aims to reduce workplace harms across the industry.

   Note

   Most of the time harm is a mass noun, so the plural turns up when injuries are counted or set side by side. Think of the separate harms of lead exposure, or harms weighed against benefits in a policy review. The same spelling is also the verb's present-tense form. In "smoking harms the lungs" it is a verb; in "the harms of smoking" it is this noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of harm.

   Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body.

   Runoff from the factory harms fish populations downstream.

   Note

   The present-tense form a singular subject calls for: it harms, a chemical harms. The verb takes its object directly, with no preposition, so "smoking harms the lungs" is right and "harms to the lungs" is not. That direct object is the quickest way to tell it from the plural noun, which follows a determiner instead, as in "the harms".

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