detriment
Americannoun
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loss, damage, disadvantage, or injury.
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a cause of loss or damage.
noun
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disadvantage or damage; harm; loss
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a cause of disadvantage or damage
Related Words
See damage.
Etymology
Origin of detriment
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English from Middle French, from Latin dētrīmentum “loss, damage,” from dētrī- ( detritus ) + -mentum -ment
Explanation
Detriment is the hurt or harm as a result of damage, loss, or a bad decision. The developers won the lawsuit, much to the detriment of the people who live near the construction site. The meaning of detriment has not changed much from its roots in the Latin word, detrimentum, which is "a rubbing off, loss, damage, defeat." A detriment is a loss that wears you down. Smoking is a detriment to good health, as is standing in the snow barefooted. To the detriment of the people who clean the floors, we gave the girls scrambled eggs right before gymnastics class.
Vocabulary lists containing detriment
The Book Thief
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Tears of a Tiger
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Britain's Finest Hour Speech - Winston Churchill (1940)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There’s one antiprinciple to this: Do not invest in companies that intentionally try to addict their customers to spend more time, attention and money on them, to the detriment of those customers’ flourishing.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 27, 2026
He accused top officers of promoting “certain soldiers to the detriment of more-worthy ones.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026
He expected a scenario of "continuity of the regime with new rules of the game -- perhaps to the detriment of the clerics, but with the same people in charge".
From Barron's • Mar. 1, 2026
And that exclusion “from the legal and political structures that govern his life” is to the detriment of both the individual and “the nation.”
From Slate • Feb. 27, 2026
But that name turned out to be a detriment rather than an asset to me.
From "Tears of a Tiger" by Sharon M. Draper
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.
