pernicious

1. 1.

   exceedingly harmful

   Synonymsbanefuldeadlypestilent

   Similarnoxious
2. 2.

   working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way

   “glaucoma is an insidious disease”

   “a subtle poison”

   Synonymsinsidioussubtle

   Similarharmful

Questions about pernicious

What does pernicious mean?

pernicious means "exceedingly harmful". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in pernicious?

pernicious has 3 syllables: per-nic-ious. The stress falls on "nic". In IPA it is /pɚˈnɪʃəs/.

What is another word for pernicious?

Close synonyms include baneful, deadly, pestilent, insidious, subtle. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is pernicious a common word?

pernicious is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.