Synonyms for harmless
- adjective
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Innocuous — incapable of causing harm or danger; safe
innocuous, innocent, inoffensive, benign, unthreatening, nonthreatening, gentle, anodyne, unoffending, undamaging, unharmful, nonharmful, innoxious dated
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Incapable of causing harm or danger; safe.
This snake looks nearly the same as its poisonous cousin but is harmless.
- adj. 2
Unharmed.
Related words
- Word family
- harmlessness
- Phrases
- hold harmless save harmless
From weakest to strongest
From the opposite of harmless, on the left, to its strongest synonyms, on the right.
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Innocent is used of inanimate substances in the sense of harmless; as, an innocent remedy, that is, one not dangerous, even if not helpful.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- innocent From this evidence it follows that he is innocent.
- benign Various types of tumors exist, both benign and malignant.
- innocuous Her innocuous statement was actually a veiled insult.
- inoffensive It's offensive how inoffensive you are!
- safe All the papers were taped up and kept in the safe.
- unharmed Boris was lucky to make it out of the woods unharmed.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| harmless | steady | |
| innocent | rising | |
| benign | rising | |
| innocuous | steady | |
| inoffensive | steady | |
| safe | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- safe1
- 6 letters
- gentle2, benign2, unhurt2
- 7 letters
- anodyne
- 8 letters
- innocent3, unharmed2
- 9 letters
- innocuous4, unscathed2, uninjured3, unharmful, innoxious
- 10 letters
- undamaging, nonharmful
- 11 letters
- inoffensive4, unoffending, undangerous
- 13 letters
- unthreatening
- 14 letters
- nonthreatening
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (gentle2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- inoffensif
- Italiano
- inoffensivo