Meaning & use
injurious
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparableformal
Causing or likely to cause harm or damage.
Grammar: Often followed by to: injurious to health.
Patterns
- injurious to someone
- injurious to something
Smoking is injurious to health.
The chemical is injurious to fish and plants.
Heavy lifting can be injurious to the back.
adjectivebefore a nounlegal
Damaging someone's reputation or rights unfairly.
Grammar: Used in legal language: injurious falsehood.
Patterns
- injurious falsehood
The newspaper printed an injurious statement.
The court found the remarks injurious to his reputation.
Injurious rumors hurt the company's sales.
Word forms
| comparative | more injurious |
|---|---|
| superlative | most injurious |
Common combinations
- injurious to health
- The warning says the product is injurious to health.
- injurious effect
- The drug had an injurious effect.
- injurious to reputation
- The article was injurious to her reputation.
- potentially injurious
- Potentially injurious chemicals must be labeled.
- injurious falsehood
- He sued for injurious falsehood.
Synonyms and how they differ
- harmful
- Harmful is everyday and widely used, while injurious sounds formal.
- damaging
- Damaging stresses lasting loss, often to reputation or things.
- detrimental
- Detrimental is formal and suggests disadvantage over time.
- noxious
- Noxious is stronger and suggests poisonous or foul substances.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: injurious or injured?
injurious vs injured
Injured describes a person who has been hurt; injurious describes something that causes hurt.
Practice
The label warned that the fumes were ______ to the lungs.
Choose one answer.
Injurious to something means harmful to it. Injured describes the victim, so it doesn't fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “injurious”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.