Hurtful

//ˈhɜːtfʊl// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Tending to impair or damage; injurious; occasioning loss or injury.

    "A good principle not rightly understood may prove as hurtful as a bad."

  2. 2
    Tending to hurt someone's feelings; insulting; lacerating.

    "Both men and women can be emotionally abusive. Even in the healthiest relationships, people occasionally reach down into their personal bags of known remembrances, past disagreements, and unresolved issues, and fling hurtful comments at their partners."

Adjective
  1. 1
    harmful to living things wordnet
  2. 2
    causing hurt wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
deleteriousperniciousunkindabusiveachingacute

Example

More examples

"The glaring light is hurtful to the eyes."

Etymology

From hurt + -ful.

Related phrases

hurt someone's feelings

More for "hurtful"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.