Meaning & use
detriment
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Meanings
noununcountable
Damage, harm or disadvantage suffered by someone or something because of an action or situation.
Grammar: Usually uncountable and appears in fixed phrases: to the detriment of, without detriment to.
Patterns
- to the detriment of someone
- without detriment to something
- a detriment to something
He worked long hours to the detriment of his health.
The new road was built without detriment to the nearby wetlands.
Cutting the training budget proved a serious detriment to the company.
nouncountable
Something that causes harm or acts as a disadvantage.
Grammar: Used with a, often with to: a detriment to progress.
Patterns
- be a detriment to something
Poor lighting is a detriment to learning in the old classrooms.
A lack of sleep can be a real detriment to a student's performance.
Her stubbornness became a detriment to the whole team.
Word forms
| plural | detriments |
|---|
Common combinations
- to the detriment of
- She focused on sales, to the detriment of customer service.
- without detriment to
- You may leave early without detriment to your pay.
- suffer detriment
- Patients should not suffer detriment because of staffing cuts.
- cause detriment
- The delay caused detriment to many small businesses.
- a serious detriment
- Noise was a serious detriment to the neighborhood.
Synonyms and how they differ
- harm
- Harm is the everyday word and works in any register, while detriment sounds formal and often comes in set phrases.
- damage
- Damage often means physical injury, whereas detriment is usually about loss of benefit or quality.
- disadvantage
- A disadvantage is a weak point, while detriment stresses actual loss or injury that results.
- loss
- Loss simply means something was lost, without the idea that another action caused the harm.
Opposites
Word family
- detrimental adjective
- harmful or damaging
- detrimentally adverb
- in a harmful way
Commonly confused: detriment or determent?
detriment vs determent
Determent is the act of discouraging someone from doing something, and is not the same as harm.
Practice
He spent so many hours on his hobby, to the ___ of his schoolwork.
Choose one answer.
To the detriment of means causing harm to something. To the benefit, favor or credit of would suggest a positive effect, which does not fit the sentence.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “detriment”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.