Innocuous

//ɪˈnɒkjuəs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Harmless; producing no ill effect.

    "With its green cupola or tapering spire, / Which sunset touches with innocuous fire, / The little church appears, to sanctify / The precincts duly where men live and die— [...]"

  2. 2
    Inoffensive; unprovocative; unexceptionable.

    "Ruth Devlin announced that the song must wait, though it appeared to be innocuous and child-like in its sentiments."

Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking intent or capacity to injure wordnet
  2. 2
    not injurious to physical or mental health wordnet
  3. 3
    not causing disapproval wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
harmlessinnoxiousbenignharmlesshomelyhumble

Example

More examples

"You may think your comment was innocuous, but I found it very offensive."

Etymology

From Latin innocuus (“harmless”) (therefore, no gemination in + nocuous).

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