innocuous
Other forms: innocuously
Something that's innocuous isn't harmful or likely to cause injury. Public figures like mayors and governors have to expect they'll get critical or even hurtful emails and phone calls, as well as more innocuous feedback.
The adjective innocuous is useful when you're talking about something that doesn't offend or injure anyone. Innocuous remarks or comments are meant kindly, and innocuous germs won't make you sick. An innocuous question is innocently curious, rather than aimed to hurt someone's feelings. The word comes from the Latin roots in-, "not," and nocere, "to injure or harm."
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not injurious to physical or mental health
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antonyms:
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noxious
injurious to physical or mental health
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harmful
causing or capable of causing harm
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baneful, deadly, pernicious, pestilent
exceedingly harmful
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corrupting, degrading
harmful to the mind or morals
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vesicant, vesicatory
causing blisters
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toxic
of or relating to or caused by a toxin or poison
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unwholesome
detrimental to physical or moral well-being
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noxious
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lacking intent or capacity to injure
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not causing disapproval“it was an innocuous remark”“confined himself to innocuous generalities”
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synonyms:
anodyne, unobjectionable
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inoffensive
giving no offense
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inoffensive
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Vocabulary lists containing innocuous
Some words look like they have opposites but don't. Confused? Don't be trepid, be couth! Check out this list and see if it doesn't gruntle you and shevel your vocabulary!
All the words below have the prefix "in-" meaning "not," as their first element. The problem is that even though many of the words have negative senses in Modern English, their positive counterparts have fallen out of use, or existed only in Latin. These words may have been part of a pair, once upon a time, but their partners are no more. Through the illustrative sentences and the linguistic tidbits below, we have tried to make the history of these negative words with "in-" clearer and hopefully easier to remember.
Laura Hillenbrand recounts the tumultuous and amazingly true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who, after surviving 40 days adrift at sea, became a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II.