noxious
English
Alternative forms
- noctious (obsolete)
Etymology
From Latin noxius (“hurtful, injurious”), from noxa (“hurt, injury”), from nocere (“to hurt, injure”); see nocent.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈnɒkʃəs/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Adjective
noxious (comparative more noxious, superlative most noxious)
- Harmful; injurious.
- 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
- But out of sight is out of mind. And that […] means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair. If that repair does not come in time, the result is noxious and potentially hazardous.
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Synonyms
- harmful
- injurious
- scathel
- see also Thesaurus:harmful
Derived terms
- noxiously
- noxiousness
Related terms
Etymologically related to noxia (“hurt, injury, damage”)
- obnoxious
- nocent
- innocent
Collocations
with nouns
- noxious substance
- noxious chemical
- noxious fumes
- noxious gas
- noxious odor
- noxious plant
- noxious weed
- noxious animal
- noxious stimulus
- noxious stimulation
Translations
harmful
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Further reading
- noxious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- noxious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
- noxious at OneLook Dictionary Search
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “noxious”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.