baneful
adjective
Synonyms
- adverse
- bad
- baleful
- damaging
- dangerous
- deleterious
- detrimental
- evil
- harmful
- hurtful
- ill
- injurious
- mischievous
- nocuous
- noxious
- pernicious
- prejudicial
- wicked
Example Sentences
New York Times, 14 Feb. 2022 To home in on what gives these peculiar primates their baneful bite, Fry and his colleagues collected the underarm secretions from a handful of wild slow lorises housed at a research station in Indonesia and isolated the proteins within. Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Feb. 2020 We are mired in a baneful pandemic unlike anything endured for a century, parsing our lives into 14-day increments of health and survival — or not. Peter M. Leschak, Star Tribune, 31 July 2020 This resulted in all the baneful consequences of the French Revolution, which Edmund Burke so brilliantly exposed in his Reflections on the Revolution in France. Jaithirth Rao, Quartz India, 4 Nov. 2019 Chaos convincingly ebbs and flows in this rattling film, a baneful tide lapping at some of history’s most troubled shores. Richard Lawson, HWD, 20 July 2017 Word History
bane entry 1 + -ful entry 1
1566, in the meaning defined at sense 1
baneful
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- harmful
- adverse
- dangerous
- detrimental
- damaging
- pernicious
- poisonous
- bad
- baleful
- deleterious
- injurious
- noxious
- hazardous
- evil
- wicked
- infectious
- mischievous
- prejudicial
- nocuous
- ill
- hurtful
- destructive
- deadly
- hostile
- pestilential
- sinister
- venomous
- insidious
- pestilent
- pestiferous
- inimical
- lethal
- unsafe
- infective
- ominous
- unfriendly
- unwholesome
- perilous
- threatening
- malignant
- fatal
- unhealthful
- risky
- menacing
- ruinous
- contagious
- noisome
- parlous
- unhealthy
- unsound
- imperiling
- nasty
- jeopardizing
- killer
- imperilling
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- harmless
- beneficial
- benign
- innocuous
- useful
- innocent
- advantageous
- safe
- favorable
- anodyne
- salutary
- propitious
- inoffensive
- good
- healthful
- wholesome
- salubrious
- curative
- remedial
- helpful
- healthy
- sound
- palliative
- benignant
- hurtless
- secure
- nonpoisonous
- nontoxic
- noninfectious
- nonfatal
- nonlethal
- nondestructive
- noncorrosive
- nonpolluting
- nonvenomous
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of baneful are deleterious, detrimental, noxious, and pernicious. While all these words mean "exceedingly harmful," baneful implies injury through poisoning or destroying.
While in some cases nearly identical to baneful, deleterious applies to what has an often unsuspected harmful effect.
The words detrimental and baneful are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, detrimental implies obvious harmfulness to something specified.
The words noxious and baneful can be used in similar contexts, but noxious applies to what is both offensive and injurious to the health of a body or mind.
Although the words pernicious and baneful have much in common, pernicious implies irreparable harm done through evil or insidious corrupting or undermining.