harmless

B2 Topic:Safety & Risk

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

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 ->

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# 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
- Safety & Risk

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harmless

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