Ruinous

//ˈɹuː.ɪnəs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Causing ruin; destructive, calamitous.
  2. 2
    Extremely costly; so expensive as to cause financial ruin.

    "They were forced to completely replace the roof at ruinous expense."

  3. 3
    Characterized by ruin; ruined; dilapidated; as, an edifice, bridge, or wall in a ruinous state.
Adjective
  1. 1
    causing injury or blight; especially affecting with sudden violence or plague or ruin wordnet
  2. 2
    extremely harmful; bringing physical or financial ruin wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
catastrophicablativeannihilativeausgespieltbalefulbaneful

Example

More examples

"Only a poor man knows what such a passion costs in cab-hire, gloves, linen, tailor's bills, and the like. If the Platonic stage lasts a little too long, the affair grows ruinous."

Etymology

From Middle English ruynous, from Old French ruinos, ruineus, from Latin ruīnōsus. By surface analysis, ruin + -ous.

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