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pernicious Definition

per·ni·cious (pər nis̸h′əs)

adjective

  1. causing great injury, destruction, or ruin; fatal; deadly
  2. Rare wicked; evil

Etymology: Fr pernicieux < L perniciosus < pernicies, destruction < pernecare, to kill < per, thoroughly + necare, to kill: see necro-

pernicious Related Forms
per·ni′·ciously adverb per·ni′·cious·ness noun
pernicious Synonyms

pernicious

modif.

harmful, deleterious, detrimental, noxious, baneful, damaging, prejudicial, ruinous, destructive, insidious, hurtful, malignant, sinister, virulent, deadly, fatal, lethal, poisonous, venomous, unwholesome; see also deadly 1, harmful, poisonous.

pernicious applies to that which does great harm by insidiously undermining or weakening pernicious anemia, a pernicious dogma; baneful implies a harming by or as if by poisoning a baneful superstition; noxious refers to something that is injurious to physical or mental health noxious fumes; deleterious implies slower, less irreparable injury to the health the deleterious effects of an unbalanced diet; detrimental implies a causing of damage, loss, or disadvantage to something specified the speech was detrimental to our cause

pernicious Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • anemia: Some people have a medical problem called pernicious anemia in which vitamin B 12 is not absorbed from the intestine.
  • anemia: She died 26 March 1932 of pernicious anemia, aged 49 years.
  • weed: Ground elder, a pernicious weed has spread all through the bed.
  • nonsense: He had heard about Jesus and thought of it all as pernicious nonsense.
  • doctrine: This was, and is, a pernicious doctrine.
  • myth: Over the past few months and years, some pernicious myths have started to become a little too popular.

Modifying Another Word

  • particularly: There's one particularly pernicious piece of red tape that Kent County Council supports - by maintaining its own version of Section 28.
  • especially: The negative impact upon black young people may be especially pernicious.
  • so: Nothing was ever so pernicious to our country, nothing was ever so unlucky.
  • very: In the same way science fiction has developed rules, and I find all rules very pernicious to writing.
  • equally: The UN and the War on Terrorism The UN's role in the war against terrorism is equally pernicious.
  • truly: If you don't understand the truly pernicious nature of the National ID card you probably deserve to be living in a police state.
pernicious Quotes

I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.

—Swift,Jonathan