detrimental

detrimental — adjective

1. producing damage or injury, especially when the harm is gradual or arises as an

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

producing damage or injury, especially when the harm is gradual or arises as an unintended side effect — for instance, a habit that slowly hurts your health, or a policy that weakens an industry over time.

Example

The doctor warned Min that a diet high in sugar was detrimental to her long-term health.

detrimental to + noun phrase for health-related harm

Smoking is detrimental to both the smoker and the people around them.

Common collocations
  • detrimental to health
  • detrimental effect
  • detrimental impact
  • detrimental consequences
  • prove detrimental to
  • be detrimental to
Synonyms
  • harmful

    The most direct everyday synonym; less formal than detrimental and works well with or without a following phrase

  • damaging

    Emphasises physical or material harm; stronger emotional weight than detrimental

  • injurious

    Very formal; common in legal, medical, or insurance contexts (injurious to public health)

Antonyms
  • beneficial

    The direct opposite; describes something that produces positive effects

Grammar Patterns

be detrimental to + noun phrase

have a detrimental effect/impact on + noun phrase

Usage Note

More formal than harmful or damaging. When specifying what is harmed, detrimental is almost always followed by to. It also frequently appears directly before nouns such as effect, impact, or consequences (a detrimental effect). Avoid using detrimental alone without a following phrase — in such positions harmful sounds more natural.

Common Mistakes

This chemical is detrimental the soil.
This chemical is detrimental to the soil.
detrimental must be followed by to when the target of harm is stated.
The new rule is very detrimental.
The new rule is very harmful.
detrimental sounds unnatural when used alone without specifying what it harms; harmful works better as a standalone adjective.

Word family

  • detriment
    nounB2
  • detrimentally
    adverbC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words describe something that causes harm, but they differ in register and scope. Harmful is the most neutral and widely used — it suits everyday conversation as well as formal writing (harmful chemicals, harmful effects). Damaging carries a stronger emotional charge and usually implies physical or material harm (damaging winds, damaging evidence). Injurious is formal and appears most often in legal, medical, or insurance language (injurious to public health). Deleterious is the rarest and most academic — it suggests subtle, long-term, or indirect harm (deleterious effects of social media on attention spans). In everyday speech, harmful replaces all three. A doctor might warn that sugar is harmful to your teeth; a lawyer might argue that a product is injurious to consumers; a researcher might write about the deleterious consequences of sleep deprivation.

harmful ↗damaging ↗injuriousdeleterious

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

  • potentially detrimental
  • highly detrimental
  • clearly detrimental

Phrases

  • have a detrimental effect on
  • be detrimental to
  • prove detrimental to

Prepositions

  • detrimental to

Etymology

LatinEnglish

Detrimental comes from the Latin verb deterere, meaning 'to rub away' or 'to wear down.' The prefix de- means 'away,' and terere means 'to rub.' From this physical image of wearing something away, the noun detrimentum ('loss' or 'damage') developed, and later the adjective detrimental ('causing loss or damage') entered English in the 1500s.