adjective

• 1Not able or likely to cause harm.

  ‘the venom of most spiders is harmless to humans’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Donating blood is harmless to the donor and yet gives a gift of life to a dying person.’
  • ‘It can cause nausea and, in extreme cases, death in humans, but is harmless to marine life.’
  • ‘The tope shark is considered harmless to humans because of its small size and its preference for small prey items.’
  • ‘On closer inspection, it turned out that the birds were suffering from a virus harmless to humans.’
  • ‘The only difference is that meat infected with scrapie is harmless to humans, whilst BSE kills.’
  • ‘A bacteriophage is a virus that attacks bacteria but which is generally harmless to human beings.’
  • ‘The whale shark, the biggest fish on earth, is a plankton feeder and harmless to divers.’
  • ‘Surely greater freedom would involve allowing people to smoke a harmless drug such as cannabis?’
  • ‘Over the last few years marijuana has gradually lost its 70s image as a harmless drug.’
  • ‘Natural processes are capable of breaking down waste products to harmless end products.’
  • ‘If you think Internet flirting and cybersex are harmless, you might want to reconsider.’
  • ‘She asks him about his drug use and tries to say that it makes him psychologically inclined to believe cannabis is harmless.’
  • ‘It is in a critical stage and the only way to save her is through a relatively harmless bone marrow transplant.’
  • ‘Although there has never been a recorded death from the overuse of cannabis, it is not harmless.’
  • ‘The owner of that dog said that it was harmless, which is predictable.’
  • ‘Anyone who has ever met him will tell you he is completely harmless.’
  • ‘For the medical trial, the virus, will be made harmless, modified so that patients do not have any ill effects.’
  • ‘Unlike the Leopard Snake which I now know to be harmless, these cute little chaps are much more appealing.’
  • ‘Who knows if this allegedly harmless toy was not, in reality, to be used as a stash of illegal weapons?’
  • ‘Many years ago he was known as the most dangerous man in his neighbourhood, yet now everyone thought of him as harmless.’

  Synonyms

  safe, innocuous, benign, gentle, mild, wholesome, non-dangerous, non-toxic, non-poisonous, non-irritant, non-addictive

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  1. 1.1Inoffensive.
     ‘as an entertainer, he's pretty harmless’
     More example sentences

     • ‘I agreed, breathing a sigh of relief that his request seemed to be innocent and harmless enough.’
     • ‘We've got better things to do than to try and distort what is now a harmless nickname.’
     • ‘And of course we should continue to take these awful, embarrassing and harmless photos.’
     • ‘How long this gentle, shy, harmless, unworldly man can carry on pushing his heavy load, God only knows!’
     • ‘It sounds so innocuous, so harmless, like it would barely cause a murmur or a ripple.’
     • ‘Although they're hardly cutting any new edge, it's competent and harmless enough.’
     • ‘Belief in them is harmless enough, no doubt, and may lead on to a further interest in matters Egyptological.’
     • ‘It seems a pretty harmless form of entertainment that may even encourage a healthy scepticism in its audience.’
     • ‘They often spoke to us children as we passed on our way to school, and seemed both friendly and harmless enough.’
     • ‘The print is harmless enough as an image; it is the inscription that brings it to the edge of obscenity.’
     • ‘This might all sound like harmless fun - but we were also warned that mobile phones can break up marriages.’
     • ‘I can think of better things to do than spend hours in the baking Greek sun but it seems like a harmless enough hobby.’
     Synonyms

     inoffensive, innocuous, unobjectionable, unexceptionable, unoffending, tame, gentle

     View synonyms