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harmless

harmless

231 1.0
Not able to hurt people or things
  • adjective
  • /ˈhɑrm.ləs/
translation icon : inofensivo
  • The insect is completely harmless, so you can safely let it crawl on your hand.
  • harmless to humans
  • harmless products
  • relatively harmless

We were playing a harmless game, Angry Birds, whatever.

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Examples

  • And because they are nonradioactive, they are harmless to infants and children in the studies.

    Academic text (1994)
  • There's no real risk in these harmless endeavors.

  • Now that sounds pretty harmless, but but here comes the challenge.

  • But it was kind of harmless, so to speak, right?

  • But I have to say it is quite harmless if you hold it at arm's length.

  • We were playing a harmless game, Angry Birds, whatever.

  • At first, they may seem harmless.

  • There are transparent and harmless ways to edit user comments on a site.

  • Sorry, sidetrack, this seems safe, harmless, at least at first.

  • We talked about all manner of things, and a lot of harmless flirtation went on.

    Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

safe
vsharmless
1.0

Not likely to be harmed or in danger

describes absence of causing harm rather than being protected from harm
innocent
vsharmless
134 1.0

Not meant to cause harm or upset

is about being incapable of causing harm rather than intention or guilt
innocuous
vsharmless
30 6.5

Unlikely to hurt or upset people

stresses lack of harmful effect rather than just low offensiveness
unoffensive
vsharmless
1 3.7

Something that does not upset people and is harmless

concerns not causing harm in general rather than only avoiding offence
noninjurious
vsharmless
3.9

Not likely to hurt people, animals, or things

is about lacking power to cause any harm rather than only injury
nondamaging
vsharmless
3.5

Something that does not harm people or things

focuses on inability to cause harm rather than mere absence of damage
unhazardous
vsharmless
3.1

Not likely to cause danger or harm

refers to lacking capacity to cause harm rather than low risk level
undangerous
vsharmless
4.1

Safe and not likely to cause harm

focuses on inability to cause harm rather than low probability of harm
unoffending
vsharmless
4.8

Not making people angry or hurting them

emphasizes lack of ability to harm rather than moral blamelessness

Antonyms

161 2.6

Causing damage to people, animals or things

Compounds

Small playful acts that do no real harm

How Harmful

lethal
193 4.8
dangerous
1.5
harmful
161 2.6
risky
269 3.6
harmless
231 1.0
safe
1.0

Surface Forms

harmless positive

Morphology

harmless = harm (transparent) = harm + less

The adjective is a straightforward negative derivation meaning 'without harm'.

Etymology

The word harmless is made of harm and -less, where -less means 'without', so it literally means 'without harm' and describes something that cannot hurt you.