harmless

B2 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈhɑɹmləs/ UK /ˈhɑːmləs/ See IPA manual

Freq #5649

Meanings

1

adj
Not able to cause any harm; safe.

Don't worry, the spider is completely harmless.
2

adj
Not meant to hurt or offend anyone.

It was just a bit of harmless fun.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · not able to cause any harm;... benign innocuous safe

2 adj · not meant to hurt or offend... innocent inoffensive

Word family

Forms harmlesslyharmlessness

Derived forms harmlesslyharmlessness

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

harmless bacteria
Bacteria that do not cause harm in the circumstances being discussed.

Adjective + noun

Etymology

From Middle English harmles, from Old English *hearmlēas, from Proto-Germanic *harmalausaz (“without harm; harmless”), equivalent to harm + -less. Cognate with German harmlos (“harmless”), Danish harmløs (“harlmess”), Swedish harmlös (“harmless”).

harmles Middle English *hearmlēas Old English *harmalausaz Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# harmless

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈhɑɹmləs/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈhɑːmləs/
**Frequency rank:** 5649

## Meanings
1. Not able to cause any harm; safe.
2. Not meant to hurt or offend anyone.

## Examples
- Don't worry, the spider is completely harmless.
- It was just a bit of harmless fun.

## Derived Forms
- harmlessly
- harmlessness

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: harmles
- Root: *hearmlēas
- Root: *harmalausaz

## Etymology
From Middle English harmles, from Old English *hearmlēas, from Proto-Germanic *harmalausaz (“without harm; harmless”), equivalent to harm + -less. Cognate with German harmlos (“harmless”), Danish harmløs (“harlmess”), Swedish harmlös (“harmless”).

## AI Etymology
Harmless comes from Middle English harmles, from Old English *hearmlēas, from Proto-Germanic *harmalausaz (“without harm; harmless”), equivalent to harm + -less. Cognate with German harmlos (“harmless”), Danish harmløs (“harlmess”), Swedish harmlös (“harmless”). The analysis is mainly morphological: the modern adjectival form is built from the named base and affix. In current use, the main senses are “Not able to cause any harm; safe” and “Not meant to hurt or offend anyone”.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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