Prejudicial
adj ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Exhibiting prejudice or bias.
"I must believe that the absence of specific language in our Policy Book with respect to sexual preferences cannot be construed as encouragement to prejudicial behavior or treatment."
- 2 Causing harm or injury; detrimental, harmful or injurious.
"Were I to give you money, for whatever reason, it would be extremely prejudicial to your chances in court if you were unfortunate enough to appear there."
- 3 Tending to convince based on past history rather than on evidence about the case at hand.
"The judge had granted the DA a one-week extension with the caustic admonition that the case would be summarily dismissed if at that time probative, as opposed to prejudicial, evidence was not produced."
- 1 (sometimes followed by ‘to’) causing harm or injury wordnet
- 2 tending to favor preconceived ideas wordnet
Example
More examples"Forcing drag queens to only wear couture during challenges is prejudicial to queens from disadvantaged backgrounds."
Etymology
From Middle English prejudiceele, prejudicial, prejudiciall, prejudiciel, prejudiciell, prejudycyall, from Old French prejudicial, prejudiciel and Medieval Latin prēiūdiciālis.
Related phrases
More for "prejudicial"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.