⚠️ Pernicious: Warning, warning!
PERNICIOUS most nearly means: A) benevolent; B) salubrious; C) deleterious; D) trenchant. Answer inside. 👉️
If something is pernicious, then it is very, very dangerous and harmful, and even more so because you don't even realize how dangerous it is, like breathing in carbon monoxide.
📚️ Definition of pernicious
pernicious (adjective): highly harmful or destructive, especially in a way that is hard to notice (Ex: a pernicious influence). deadly.
🗣️ Pronunciation of pernicious
IPA: pərˈnɪʃ.əs (See IPA key)
Respelling: per-NIH-shuhs4
📰 Examples of pernicious
Here are some examples of the word pernicious:
Once it was discovered that the pesticide had a pernicious effect on certain crops, most farmers quickly abandoned it for chemicals that were more “plant-friendly.”
The videos had a pernicious influence on the children.
Requiring residents of a nation to carry with them at all times a form of valid, government-issued identification may not immediately seem pernicious, but the ramifications certainly are; imagine leaving the house without your ID for quick errand, getting pulled over by the police and subsequently detained.
💬 Quotes featuring pernicious
I verily believe that buttoning himself up in so downy and blanket-like a coat had a pernicious effect upon him; upon the same principle that too much oats are bad for horses. — Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street (1853). The quote refers to Turkey, a minor character in the story who becomes cranky in the afternoons.
🧠 At a glance
Word: pernicious
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: highly harmful or destructive, especially in a way that is hard to notice (Ex: a pernicious influence). (rare) deadly.
Pronunciation: /pərˈnɪʃ.əs/ or (per-NIH-shuhs4)
Etymology: From Middle English, from Old French pernicios, from Latin perniciōsus (“destructive”), from perniciēs (“destruction”), from per (“through”) + nex (“slaughter, death”). — Wiktionary
Common collocations: pernicious influence; pernicious effect
Quiz answer: C, deleterious.
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