noxious

English

Alternative forms

• noctious (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin noxius (“hurtful, injurious”), from noxa (“hurt, injury”), from nocere (“to hurt, injure”); see nocent.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈnɒkʃəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

noxious (comparative more noxious, superlative most noxious)

1. Harmful; injurious.
   • 1822, John Barclay, chapter I, in An Inquiry Into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, Concerning Life and Organization‎^[1], Edinburgh, London: Bell & Bradfute; Waugh & Innes; G. & W. B. Whittaker, section I, page 1:

     In the living state, the body is observed to […] reject what is noxious; [...]

   • 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:

     [...] many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair. If that repair does not come in time, the result is noxious and potentially hazardous.

Synonyms

• harmful
• injurious
• scathing
• see also Thesaurus:harmful

Derived terms

• noxious stimulus
• noxious trade
• noxiously
• noxiousness

Related terms

Etymologically related to noxia (“hurt, injury, damage”)

• obnoxious
• nocent
• innocent

Collocations

with nouns

• noxious substance
• noxious chemical
• noxious fumes
• noxious gas
• noxious odor
• noxious plant
• noxious weed
• noxious animal
• noxious stimulus
• noxious stimulation

Translations

harmful

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Asturian: nocivu (ast) m, dañible (ast) m or f
• Basque: kaltegarri (eu)
• Bulgarian: вреден (bg) (vreden), нездравословен (bg) (nezdravosloven)
• Catalan: nociu (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Corsican: nucivu m
• Estonian: kahjur-
• Finnish: vahingollinen (fi), haitallinen (fi), myrkyllinen (fi)
• French: nocif (fr) m
• Friulian: nocîf
• Galician: nocivo m, daniño m
• German: Schad- (de), schädlich (de)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: kártékony (hu), ártalmas (hu)
• Italian: insalubre (it), nocivo (it), malsano (it)
• Japanese: 有毒な (ゆうどくな, yūdokuna)
• Korean: 유해한 (yuhaehan)
• Latin: noxius m
• Latvian: kaitīgs
• Maori: orotā
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: szkodliwy (pl), niezdrowy (pl)
• Portuguese: nocivo (pt) m, daninho (pt) m
• Romanian: nociv (ro) m or n, vătămător (ro) m or n, nesănătos (ro) m or n
• Russian: ядови́тый (ru) (jadovítyj), вре́дный (ru) (vrédnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ште̏тан m

  Roman: štȅtan (sh) m

• Spanish: nocivo (es) m, daniño m
• Turkish: zararlı (tr)
• Vietnamese: độc hại (vi)

Further reading

• “noxious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “noxious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “noxious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “noxious”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.