Pernicious

//pəˈnɪʃəs//

Synonyms for "pernicious" (91 found)

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Closest matches (19)

harmful pestilent baleful baneful brutal calamitous corroding corrosive corrupt corrupting corruptive counterproductive damaging

Adjective(5 words)

abandoned arrant attery bad calamitous

Adjective(1 words)

baneful

Strong matches (27)

damnable deadly death dealing death-bringing deathful deathly deleterious destructive detrimental devastating disadvantageous disserviceable distressing evil fatal feral hurtful injurious internecine

Adjective(6 words)

dark deleterious disastrous evil grim iniquitous

Adjective(2 words)

deadly insidious

Related words (45)

killing lethal malefic maleficent malevolent malicious malign malignant miasmatic miasmic mischievous mortal noisome noxious ominous pestiferous pestilential poisonous prejudicial ruinous

Show 12 more words

savage scatheful sinister swart toxic unwholesome venenate veneniferous venenous venomous vicious virulent

Adjective(11 words)

malicious nefarious nithing sinful sullen ungodly venom viperish viperous wicked woeful

Adjective(2 words)

pestilent subtle

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

5 relation types

Synonyms

1 entries

pestilent

Related terms

1 entries

pernicity

derived

5 entries

antipernicious pernicious anemia pernicious scale perniciously perniciousness

related to

6 entries

deadly death harm injury pernicious anaemia subtle

similar

3 entries

harmful noxious

Translations

76 translations across 25 languages.

Bulgarian

3 entries

ги́белен adj (causing death or injury)
па́губен adj (causing much harm)
па́губен adj (causing death or injury)

Chinese Mandarin

2 entries

有害 adj (causing much harm)
致命 adj (causing death or injury)

Dutch

4 entries

destructief adj (causing much harm)
dodelijk adj (causing death or injury)
schadelijk adj (causing much harm)
schadelijk adj (causing death or injury)

Finnish

4 entries

haitallinen adj (causing much harm)
tappava adj (causing death or injury)
tuhoisa adj (causing much harm)
turmiollinen adj (causing much harm)

French

4 entries

dangereux adj (causing death or injury)
délétère adj (causing death or injury)
malsain adj (causing much harm)
nocif adj (causing much harm)

Georgian

4 entries

მავნე adj (causing much harm)
მავნებელი adj (causing much harm)
მაწყინარი adj (causing much harm)
საზიანო adj (causing much harm)

German

4 entries

bösartig adj (causing much harm)
perniziös adj (causing much harm)
perniziös adj (causing death or injury)
schädlich adj (causing much harm)

Greek

3 entries

θανατηφόρος adj (causing death or injury)
ολέθριος adj (causing much harm)
ολέθριος adj (causing death or injury)

Hungarian

2 entries

veszedelmes adj (causing death or injury)
ártalmas adj (causing much harm)

Italian

1 entries

pernicioso adj (causing much harm)

Japanese

2 entries

有害な adj (causing much harm)
致命的な adj (causing death or injury)

Latin

1 entries

perniciosus adj (causing much harm)

Macedonian

2 entries

погубен adj (causing much harm)
погубен adj (causing death or injury)

Māori

2 entries

whakamōrearea adj (causing death or injury)
whakawhara adj (causing death or injury)

Norwegian Bokmål

1 entries

fordervelig adj (causing much harm)

Polish

4 entries

groźny adj (causing much harm)
szkodliwy adj (causing much harm)
zgubny adj (causing much harm)
zgubny adj (causing death or injury)

Portuguese

2 entries

mórbido adj (causing death or injury)
pernicioso adj (causing much harm)

Romanian

4 entries

dăunător adj (causing much harm)
dăunător adj (causing death or injury)
pernicios adj (causing much harm)
pernicios adj (causing death or injury)

Russian

4 entries

вре́дный adj (causing death or injury)
ги́бельный adj (causing death or injury)
зловредный adj (causing much harm)
па́губный adj (causing much harm)

Scottish Gaelic

1 entries

sgriosail adj (causing much harm)

Serbo-Croatian

2 entries

poguban adj (causing death or injury)
štetan adj (causing much harm)

Spanish

2 entries

pernicioso adj (causing much harm)
pernicioso adj (causing death or injury)

Swedish

1 entries

fördärvlig adj (causing much harm)

Turkish

4 entries

habis adj (causing much harm)
muzır adj (causing much harm)
pernisiyöz adj (causing much harm)
pernisiyöz adj (causing death or injury)

Ukrainian

2 entries

згубний adj (causing much harm)
шкідливий adj (causing much harm)

Sample sentences

18 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

The Displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter, by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is — second only to American political campaigns — the most prominent and pernicious manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time.

Source: tatoeba (723883)

Pervasive and pernicious deviations from both fact and logical validity lurked behind a meretricious plausibility.

Source: tatoeba (2119619)

I think that the romantic myth is one of the most pernicious of our times.

Source: tatoeba (2217792)

The essay itself isn't a problem, but all these pernicious questions and glossary make me awfully mad!

Source: tatoeba (3495511)

Showing 4 of 18 available sentences.

More for "pernicious"

Meaning Antonyms Sentences Word Type

Keep exploring

Compare antonyms Use in sentences Read the blog

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