hurtful

[hurt-fuhl]

adjective

1. causing hurt or injury; injurious; harmful.

   Synonyms: noxious, pernicious, destructive

hurtful

/ ˈhɜːtfʊl /

adjective

1. causing distress or injury

   to say hurtful things

Other Word Forms

• hurtfulness noun
• hurtfully adverb
• unhurtful adjective
• unhurtfully adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of hurtful¹

First recorded in 1520–30; hurt + -ful

Example Sentences

The Grammy Award winner, 43, has already denounced her ex's memoir, writing on social media that Federline's revelations have been "extremely hurtful and exhausting".

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"People go through that, he has apologized for the stupid remarks, the hurtful remarks that he made, and I'm confident that he's going to run a great campaign and that he's going to win."

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She described the contents of the memoir as "extremely hurtful and exhausting", but suggested the work would sell better than her own memoir had done.

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“There’s even a term for it—delayed grief—and this itself is very, very hurtful.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He said the woman had a "strong" and "unusual" personality and concluded that the children had been upset when "unwise and hurtful things were said about the father".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• damaging 
• dangerous 
• destructive 
• detrimental 
• distressing www.thesaurus.com
• harmful 
• malicious 
• nasty 
• pernicious 
• prejudicial 
• unkind 
• upsetting