Link Centre Dictionary

pernicious

per·ni·cious

UK/pəˈnɪʃəs/ US/pɚˈnɪʃəs/ rare obsolete

adjective

1.
2.

working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way

  • “glaucoma is an insidious disease”
  • “a subtle poison”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From Middle English, from Old French pernicios, from Latin perniciōsus (“destructive”), from perniciēs (“destruction”), from per (“through”) + nex (“slaughter, death”).

Phrases

  • pernicious anemia
  • pernicious scale

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.