pernicious
/pəˈnɪʃəs
/adjective
Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way: the pernicious influences of the mass media...
- Physiological laws can explain the harmful and pernicious effects of deep breathing.
- He's correct that the right of jury nullification trumps any worries about the possible pernicious effects of the drug.
- Yet this fear of the pernicious effects of property rights did not last for long.
Synonyms
harmful, damaging, destructive, injurious, hurtful, detrimental, deleterious, dangerous, adverse, inimical, unhealthy, unfavourable, bad, evil, baleful, wicked, malign, malevolent, malignant, noxious, poisonous, cancerous, corrupting, ruinous, deadly, lethal, fatal
literary malefic, maleficent
archaic pestilent, pestilential, baneful, pestiferous
Derivatives
perniciously
/ adverb ...- For the public service, the affair demonstrates its fragility in the face of both ministers and, more perniciously, ministerial staffers.
- She glares at me perniciously, and then turns her back, with a sharp exhalation, and her arms shaking firmly at her sides.
- Their persistence perniciously influences mood and emotional regulation.
perniciousness
/ noun ...- That kind of double talk, that perniciousness should be stopped immediately.
- However, geneticists began criticizing him for his antiscientific declarations regarding the perniciousness of genetics.
- In fact, its perniciousness has spread well beyond startups.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin perniciosus 'destructive', from pernicies 'ruin', based on nex, nec- 'death'.