physical injury or mental damage; hurt.
to do him bodily harm.
moral injury; evil; wrong.
physical or mental injury or damage
moral evil or wrongdoing
See damage.
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English hearm; cognate with German Harm, Old Norse harmr
H(igh-speed) A(nti) R(adiation) M(issile)
Harm is a deliberate injury or damage to someone or something. A playground bully is a mean kid who causes harm to other kids. Harm is both a noun and a verb — when you inflict harm on your brother, you harm him. Physically hurting someone is only one way to harm them. If a classmate spreads a mean rumor about you, that also harms you. The Old English root word is hearm, which means "hurt" and "pain," but also "evil" and "insult."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some agencies maintain that current environmental levels are below thresholds expected to harm people.
From Science Daily • Jun. 9, 2026
"This will prevent serious and irreparable harm to competition in this growing market by Meta's conduct, which at first sight infringes EU competition rules," the commission said.
From Barron's • Jun. 9, 2026
McAllan told Holyrood there would also be new national guidance published by the end of the month to support schools in tackling the "spectrum of harm" linked to mobile phone use.
From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026
"They allow police to step in at an early stage to prevent harm and disrupt organisations while we investigate," he said.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
He didn’t care about his personal reputation if I chose to portray him inaccurately, he said, but he did care greatly about the harm any inaccuracy might do to his credibility in the medical world.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
