hurtful

C2+ Topic:Emotions & Feelings

US /ˈhɜrtfəl/ UK /ˈhɜːtfʊl/ See IPA manual

adj

Meanings

1

adj
causing emotional pain or distress

Her hurtful remarks left him brooding for days.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · causing emotional pain or... wounding painful injurious damaging cruel upsetting distressing

Opposites

kind soothing comforting harmless

Word family

Forms hurtfulness

Derived forms hurtfullyhurtfulness

Related forms hurt

Etymology

From Middle English hurtful, from hurt + -ful. The verb hurt derives from Old French hurter ('to strike, knock against'), of uncertain ultimate origin, possibly Frankish *hurt ('ram').

hurter fro-nor

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Emotions & Feelings Word Formation & Derivatives

# hurtful

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** ˈhɜrtfəl
**IPA (UK):** ˈhɜːtfʊl

## Meanings
1. causing emotional pain or distress

## Examples
- Her hurtful remarks left him brooding for days.

## Synonyms
- wounding
- painful
- injurious
- damaging
- cruel
- upsetting
- distressing

## Antonyms
- kind
- soothing
- comforting
- harmless

## Derived Forms
- hurtfully
- hurtfulness

## Related Forms
- hurt

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: hurter

## Etymology
From Middle English hurtful, from hurt + -ful. The verb hurt derives from Old French hurter ('to strike, knock against'), of uncertain ultimate origin, possibly Frankish *hurt ('ram').

## AI Etymology
Hurtful is from Middle English hurtful, from hurt + -ful. The verb hurt derives from Old French hurter ('to strike, knock against'), of uncertain ultimate origin, possibly Frankish *hurt ('ram'). Important recorded forms include hurter (Old French). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. Its deeper history remains uncertain, with proposed links left as possibilities rather than a single settled derivation. The current sense covers causing emotional pain or distress. The wider family includes derived forms such as hurtfully and hurtfulness and related words such as hurt.

## Topics
- Emotions & Feelings
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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