EN

Synonyms for destructive

  • adjective

Most common

devastating pernicious deleterious ruinous deadly harmful damaging wasteful

All synonyms

Adjective

ruinous, devastating, pernicious, deleterious, wasteful, damaging, harmful, deadly, fatal, evil, detrimental, disastrous, mischievous, injurious, negative, hurtful, baneful, poisonous, catastrophic, noxious, calamitous, subversive, malignant, killing, cataclysmic, caustic, baleful, iconoclastic, grievous, pestilential, internecine, withering, mortal, annihilative, wreckful formal, cataclysmal, vandalic, eradicative, wrackful, catawampus US, lethal, malign, venomous, unwholesome

Antonyms

non-destructive, constructive, productive

All antonyms of destructive →

Definitions

  1. adj. 1

    Causing destruction; damaging.

From weakest to strongest

  1. constructive
  2. productive
  3. destructive
  4. disastrous
  5. detrimental
  6. wasteful
  7. pernicious
  8. ruinous
  9. deleterious

From the opposite of destructive, on the left, to its strongest synonyms, on the right.

Choose the right word

Destructive, Pernicious, Injurious, Noceo or Noisome?

Pernicious is stronger than injurious; that which is injurious is capable of doing harm; that which is pernicious is likely to be destructive. noceo, hurt) is a stronger word than noisome, as referring to that which is injurious or destructive.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

  • devastating The depredation of the courthouse was devastating.
  • pernicious A half-truth is more pernicious than a lie.
  • deleterious Insufficient illumination is deleterious to ocular health.
  • ruinous Absolute tolerance is ruinous to a tolerant society.
  • deadly Sloth or laziness is one of the seven deadly sins.
  • harmful There's no denying the harmful effects of smoking.

Popularity over time

Word1850 → 2019Trend
destructivesteady
devastatingrising
pernicioussteady
deleteriousfalling
ruinousfalling
deadlyrising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters
evil2
5 letters
fatal2
6 letters
deadly2, mortal2, lethal2, malign2
7 letters
killing2, harmful2, hurtful2, caustic2, noxious2, ruinous3, baleful2, baneful
8 letters
negative3, damaging3, wasteful2, grievous2, venomous3, wreckful, vandalic, wrackful
9 letters
poisonous3, malignant3, withering3, injurious4
10 letters
disastrous3, subversive3, pernicious3, calamitous4, catawampus
11 letters
devastating4, detrimental4, mischievous3, deleterious5, cataclysmic4, internecine4, unwholesome, cataclysmal, eradicative
12 letters
catastrophic4, iconoclastic5, pestilential, annihilative

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (evil2 = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français
destructif