Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Pernicious |
PerniciousAdjective1. Exceedingly harmful. 2. Working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way; "glaucoma is an insidious disease"; "a subtle poison". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "pernicious" was first used: sometime in the early 15th century. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Health | Tending to a fatal issue. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: PerniciousSynonyms: baneful (adj), deadly (adj), insidious (adj), pestilent (adj), subtle (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Inexpedience | Adjective: hurtful, harmful, scathful, baneful, baleful; injurious, deleterious, detrimental, noxious, pernicious, mischievous, full of mischief, mischief-making, malefic, malignant, nocuous, noisome; prejudicial; disserviceable, disadvantageous; wide-wasting. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Pernicious |
| English words defined with "pernicious": antipernicious anemia factor ♦ Canada thistle, chronic gastritis, chronic glossitis, Cirsium arvense, cobalamin, creeping thistle, cyanocobalamin ♦ Damageable, Destructive sorties ♦ intrinsic factor ♦ macrocyte, megaloblast, megaloblastic anaemia, megaloblastic anemia, megalocyte, metaplastic anaemia, metaplastic anemia ♦ pestilence ♦ Scathful ♦ The evil one ♦ vitamin B12. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "pernicious": Flatterers ♦ Machiavellism, meme plague ♦ Zenelophon. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "pernicious": Nuisance. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Plant pathologist Rick Bennett examines fungi that may be used for biological control of pernicious weeds. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus car" by Bobbie Osborne Commentary: "(Daucus carota) Wild carrot is edible when young but the root (especially the center) soon gets tough. It is yellowish in color, spindle-shaped, slender, firm and woody; a pernicious weed in some areas. ." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
James Russell Lowell | That pernicious sentiment, "Our country, right or wrong." |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Given its pernicious effects, most agree that a major depressive episode or recurrent depressive illness require treatment in all age groups, including the elderly. (references) | |
The physician will also need to rule out stroke, neurosyphilis, spinocerebellar ataxias, pernicious anemia, diabetes, Sjogren's disease, and vitamin B12 deficiency. (references) | ||
Other autoimmune disorders such as diabetes, pernicious anemia (a chronic, progressive blood disorder), and thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid gland) may occur more frequently in patients with stiff-person syndrome. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
George Washington | 1789-1797 | At other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. |
James Monroe | 1817-1825 | An early accommodation of differences will, it is hoped, prevent all such fraudulent and pernicious practices, and place the relations of the two countries on a very amicable and permanent basis. |
Abraham Lincoln | 1861-1865 | As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad, as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all-a merely pernicious abstraction. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Pernicious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.45% of the time. "Pernicious" is used about 181 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.45% | 180 | 23,046 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.55% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 181 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "pernicious": pernicious anaemia ♦ Pernicious Anemia ♦ pernicious equine anaemia. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "pernicious": non-pernicious. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
pernicious anemia | 364 |
pernicious anemia symptom | 21 |
anaemia pernicious | 21 |
pernicious | 17 |
anemia pernicious treatment | 5 |
enemia pernicious | 3 |
anemia cancer gastric pernicious | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "pernicious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shumë i rrezikshëm, shkatërrues (depredator, destroyer, destructive, devastating, enemy, rioter, ruinous, subversive, wrecker), i dëmshëm (baneful, damnific, deleterious, destructive, detrimental, evil, harmful, injurious, malefic, maleficent, malign, mischievous, nocent, nocuous, noisome, noxious, prejudicial, unwholesome), fatal (baneful, deathly, fatal, fateful, feral, vital), dëmtues (defector, deleterious, detrimental, enemy, evil, harmful, injurious). (various references) | |
Arabic | مميت (deadly, deathly, fatal, fateful, gangrenous, grave, internecine, lethal, mortal), مهلك (annihilating, baleful, baneful, deadly, deathly, destructive, fatal, internecine, lethal, murderous, pestilent, ruinous, withering), مؤذ (annoying, bad, baleful, damaging, deleterious, detrimental, harmful, hurtful, injurious, maleficent, malevolent, malign, mischievous, nasty, nocuous, noisome, noxious, poisonous, prejudicial, unwholesome, verminous, wicked), وخيم (adverse), ضار (detrimental, felled, ferocious, fierce, hurtful, impish, injurious, malign, malignant, noisome, noxious, pest, poisonous, predatory, prejudicial, rabid, rapacious, ravenous, savage, set, sharp, truculent, unhealthy, unwholesome, vicious), خبيث (bad, black-hearted, dark, evil, evil-minded, malevolent, malicious, malignant, rake, roue, sly, vicious, viperous, virulent, vulpine, wicked, wily). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | гибелен (disastrous, fatal, fateful, homicidal, pestilent, pestilential, suicidal, swart), вреден (adverse, bad, deleterious, destructive, detrimental, evil, harmful, ill, inimical, injurious, maleficent, nocuous, noisome, noxious, pestiferous, pestilential, prejudicial), пагубен (baleful, baneful, calamitous, damnific, detrimental, evil, fatal, fateful, homicidal, malign, noxious, pestilent, pestilential, ruinous, subversive). (various references) | |
Chinese | 有害 (Adverse, Baneful, Deleterious, harmful, injurious). (various references) | |
Czech | zhoubný (baleful, baneful, deadly, destructive, hurtful, malign, malignant, noisome, ruinous, unwholesome, virulent), destruktivní (destructive, ruinous), škodlivý (bad, damaging, derogatory, detrimental, harmful, injurious, malign, nocent, noisome, noxious, obnoxious, prejudicial). (various references) | |
Danish | perniciøs (fatal). (various references) | |
Dutch | pernicieus. (various references) | |
Farsi | مهلک (Deadly, Dire, Fatal, Lethal, Mortal, Noxious), مضر (Adverse, Bad, Baneful, Derogatory, Evil, Foe, Harmful, Inadvisable, Inimical, Injurious, Insanitary, Nocuous, Noxious, Obnoxious, Unwholesome), نابودکننده (Destroyer, Exterminator), کشنده (Attractive, Deadly, Fatal, Killer, Mortal, Murderous, Tracker), زیان اور (Bad, Deleterious, Evil, Ill, Malignant, Nocuous). (various references) | |
Finnish | turmiollinen (destructive, harmful, injurious, noxious, ruinous). (various references) | |
French | pernicieux. (various references) | |
German | verderblich (baleful, balefully, baneful, banefully, corrupting, malign, noxious, perishable, perniciously, perversive, ruinous, unwholesome), schädlich (adverse, baneful, damaging, deleterious, destructive, detrimental, harmful, harmfull, hurtful, inimical, injurious, injuriously, malign, malignly, mischievous, mischievously, noisome, nonconstructive, noxal, noxious, noxiously, perniciousness, prejudicial, unhealthy). (various references) | |
Greek | ολέθριοσ (baneful, calamitous, disastrous, noxious, pestiferous, ruinous), ολέθριος (baleful, devastating). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ממאיר (malign, malignant, stinging, terminal), הרסני (calamitous, destructive, disastrous, internecine, ruinous). (various references) | |
Hungarian | veszedelmes (dangerous, malign, noxious, parlous, perilous, pestiferous, poisonous, ruinous), kóros (diseased, morbid, morbidity, pathological, peccant), káros (baleful, deleterious, deteriorative, detrimental, disparaging, harmful, hurtful, ill, injurious, mischievous, parasitic, poisonous, prejudicial), ártalmas (adverse, deleterious, destructive, deteriorative, harmful, hurtful, injurious, malign, miasmal, miasmatic, mischievous, noisome, noxious, pestilent, pestilential, poisonous). (various references) | |
Italian | pernicioso (noxious). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 悪性 (evil nature, lewdness, licentiousness, malignancy, malignant, virulence). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | あくせい (bad voice, evil speaking, malignancy, malignant, misgovernment, virulence). (various references) | |
Korean | 유해한 (Detrimental, harmful, hurtful, Noxious, unhealthy). (various references) | |
Manx | traartagh (destructive, ruinous, vitriolic), scryssoil, pyshoonagh (poisonous, venomous), jeeyllagh (harmful, prejudicial; bedraggled). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | erniciouspay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pernicioso (baleful, deleterious, detrimental, harmful, hurtful, malign, malignant, mischievous, noxious, pestiferous, pestilential, poisonous, prejudicial). (various references) | |
Romanian | pernicios (ruinous, unwholesome), fatal (deadly, deathly, fatal, fateful, feral, inevitably, pestilent, pestilential, vital, weird). (various references) | |
Russian | пагубный (baleful, calamitous, damned, damnific, evil, fatal, harmful, hurtful, malefic, maleficent, malign, noxious, prejudicial). (various references) | |
Scottish | cronail (hurtful). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | perniciozan, ubitačan (baneful, fatal, hurtful, murderous), opasan (adventurous, breakneck, dangerous, girded, hazardous, parlous, perilous, tight, treacherous, ugly, uncanny, unsafe, venturous, vicious), opak (blackhearted, evil, malefic, malignant, nefarious, perishing, severe, ugly, wicked). (various references) | |
Spanish | pernicioso (damnific, maleficent, malignant, pestiferous, pestilent, pestilential), peligroso (dangerous, hazardous, nasty, parlous, perilous, reckless, risky, ugly), funesto (baleful, baneful, black, disastrous, evil, fatal, fell, ill fated, unfortunate). (various references) | |
Swedish | fördärvlig (baneful, deleterious, destructive, evil, injurious, pestilent). (various references) | |
Turkish | zararlı (baleful, baneful, corruptive, deleterious, derogatory, destructive, detrimental, evil, harmful, hurtful, ill, inimical, injurious, insalubrious, malefic, maleficent, mischievous, nocuous, noisome, noxious, pestilent, pestilential, prejudicial, unhealthy, unwholesome), muzır (harmful, malefic, noisome, noxious), ölümcül (deadly, fatal). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | згубний (baneful, calamitous, damnatory, damnific, damning, deleterious, destructive, fatal, holocaustal, holocaustic, maleficent, malign, malignant, noxious, pestiferous, pestilential, poisonous, prejudicial, prejudicious, ruinous, withering), злоякісний (cancerous, ferine, malign, malignant). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | độ hại. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | perniciosus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | 2 Peter Chapter 2, Verse 2 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Kai polloi exakolouqhsousin autwn taiV apwleiaiV di ouV h odoV thV alhqeiaV blasfhmhqhsetai |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Et multi sequentur eorum luxurias per quos via veritatis blasphemabitur |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | And many schulen sue her letcheries, bi whiche the weie of treuthe schal be blasfemyd; |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | And many shall folowe their damnable wayes by which the waye of trueth shalbe evyll spoken of |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | And many will follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth will be evil spoken of. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | And a great number will go with them in their evil ways, through whom the true way will have a bad name. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | 2 Peter Chapter 2, Verse 2 |
| Cebuano | Ug daghan ang managsunod sa ilang pagpatuyang sa kaulag, ug tungod kanila pagapasipad-an ang dalan sa kamatuoran. |
| Chinese | 將 有 許 多 人 隨 從 他 們 邪 淫 的 行 為 、 便 叫 真 道 、 因 他 們 的 緣 故 被 毀 謗 。 |
| Croatian | I mnogi æe se povesti za njihovim razvratnostima. Zbog njih æe se kuditi put istine. |
| Danish | og mange ville efterfølge deres Uterligheder, så Sandhedens Vej for deres Skyld vil blive bespottet, |
| Dutch | En velen zullen hun verderfenissen navolgen, door welke de weg der waarheid zal gelasterd worden. |
| Finnish | Ja moni on seuraava heidän irstauksiaan, ja heidän tähtensä totuuden tie tulee häväistyksi; |
| French | Plusieurs les suivront dans leurs dissolutions, et la voie de la vérité sera calomniée à cause d`eux. |
| German | Und viele werden nachfolgen ihrem Verderben; um welcher willen wird der Weg der Wahrheit verlästert werden. |
| Hungarian | És sokan fogják követni azoknak romlottságát; a kik miatt az igazság útja káromoltatni fog. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Meskipun begitu, banyak orang akan mengikuti cara hidup guru-guru palsu itu yang dikuasai oleh hawa nafsu mereka. Dan perbuatan guru-guru itu akan membuat banyak orang menghina Jalan Benar yang menuju kepada Allah. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Maka banyak orang yang akan mengikut perbuatannya yang cabul; dan jalan yang benar itu akan dicela orang oleh sebab mereka itu. |
| Italian | Molti seguiranno le loro dissolutezze e per colpa loro la via della verità sarà coperta di impropèri. |
| Maori | A he tokomaha e aru i a ratou tikanga whakarihariha; ma reira e korerotia kinotia ai te ara o te pono. |
| Norwegian | Og mange skal følge dem efter i deres skamløshet, og for deres skyld skal sannhetens vei bli spottet, |
| Portuguese | E muitos seguirão as suas dissoluções, e por causa deles será blasfemado o caminho da verdade; |
| Rumanian | Mulyi ki vor urma kn destrqbqlqrile lor. Wi, din pricina lor, calea adevqrului va fi vorbitq de rqu. |
| Shuar | Tura Untsurí shuar ni yajauch Túruiniamurin iirsar métek Túrawartatui. Iis, "Yus-Chichaman unuiniaitjai" Tuíniayatan Imiá yajauch Túruiniakui Untsurí aents "Yus-Chicham ántraiti" tiartatui. |
| Spanish | Y muchos seguirán tras la sensualidad de ellos, y por causa de ellos será difamado el camino de la verdad. |
| Swahili | Tena watu wengi watazifuata hizo njia zao mbaya, kwa sababu yao, wengine wataipuuza Njia ya ukweli. |
| Uma | Aga nau' wae, wori' moto tauna to mpotuku' gau' -ra to uma tumotoa, alaa-na mpai' ria tauna to mporuge' Tudui' Yesus to makono. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "pernicious": perniciously, perniciousness, perniciousnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Pernicious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: penicious, perinacious, permicious, pernacious, perniciosus, pernicous, pernicuous, pernisious, pernitious, prenicious, purnicious. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "pernicious" (pronounced perni"shus) |
| 4 | -i" sh u s | ambitious, auspicious, capricious, delicious, expeditious, factitious, fictitious, inauspicious, injudicious, judicious, malicious, nutritious, propitious, repetitious, seditious, superstitious, surreptitious, suspicious, vicious. |
| 3 | -sh u s | anxious, atrocious, audacious, capacious, cautious, conscientious, conscious, contentious, efficacious, facetious, fallacious, ferocious, flirtatious, fractious, gracious, hellacious, herbaceous, infectious, loquacious, luscious, nauseous, noxious, obnoxious, ostentatious, overambitious, precious, precocious, predaceous, pretentious, pugnacious, rambunctious, rapacious, salacious, sebaceous, semiprecious, spacious, specious, subconscious, tenacious, tendentious, unconscious, unpretentious, vexatious, vivacious, voracious. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-i-i-n-o-p-r-s-u" | |
-1 letter: precision. | |
-2 letters: coinsure, conspire, incisure, incorpse, pecorini, pouncers, precious, pruinose, recision, ripienos, sciurine, soricine. | |
-3 letters: coenuri, coiners, copiers, crepons, crispen, cronies, croupes, cuisine, eosinic, incisor, inpours, inspire, irenics, ironies, noisier, oneiric, orceins, orpines, piceous, pincers, piscine, porcine, porcini, pouncer, pounces, princes, purines, recoins, recoups, ricinus, ripieno, sericin, sinopie, soupier, spicier, spinier, uprisen, urinose. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-i-i-n-o-p-r-s-u" | |
+2 letters: perniciously, pertinacious, supercoiling. | |
+3 letters: computerising, minicomputers, percussionist, preinductions. | |
+4 letters: capriciousness, circumspection, counterpoising, incorruptibles, percussionists, perniciousness, pertinaciously, picornaviruses, reduplications, republications, superinduction, superinfection, superscription, ultraprecision. | |
+5 letters: circumspections, connoisseurship, eutrophications, multiprocessing, precipitousness, prepublications, recapitulations, superinductions, superinfections, superscriptions, ultraprecisions, unappreciations. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Speeches 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Bible Trace 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
