innocuous

[ih-nok-yoo-uh s]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR innocuous ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

not harmful or injurious; harmless: an innocuous home remedy.

not likely to irritate or offend; inoffensive; an innocuous remark.

not interesting, stimulating, or significant; pallid; insipid: an innocuous novel.

Origin of innocuous

From the Latin word innocuus, dating back to 1590–1600. See in-³, nocuous

Related formsin·noc·u·ous·ly, adverbin·noc·u·ous·ness, in·no·cu·i·ty

[in-uh-kyoo-i-tee] /ˌɪn əˈkyu ɪ ti/, nounun·in·noc·u·ous, adjectiveun·in·noc·u·ous·ly, adverbun·in·noc·u·ous·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for innocuous

bland, banal, inoffensive, insipid, painless, flat, innocent, jejune, kind, safe, weak, unobjectionable, innoxious, sapless

Examples from the Web for innocuous

Contemporary Examples of innocuous

The contrarians of the world went full Oliver Stone on the innocuous tune, branding it “problematic” and “anti-feminist.”
‘All About That Bass’ Singer Meghan Trainor On Haters and Her Polarizing (and Unlikely) No. 1 Hit
Marlow Stern
October 7, 2014
One faction contends violent games invite real-world brutality, and the other faction defends violent games as innocuous.
Playing Violent Video Games Makes You a Better Person, Study Says
Kevin Zawacki
July 4, 2014
It feels like an innocuous moment, it should be an innocuous moment, but such moments are like serrated precipices.
Why 7 Times 8 Tripped Up the UK Chancellor
Tim Teeman
July 4, 2014
On May 24, 2012, Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, gave an innocuous interview to a visiting journalist from Turkey.
The Hedonistic, Possibly Holocaust-Denying Sect That’s Hoodwinking Republican Congressmen
Jay Michaelson
April 19, 2014
More than one used the term “innocuous” to describe the laws.
How Anti-Gay Will Mississippi’s ‘New’ Religious Freedom Bill Be?
Jay Michaelson
March 11, 2014

Historical Examples of innocuous

Has the art censor decided that the photographs are innocuous, or that they are art?
Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 1, March 1906
Various
To conclude our voyage, we have six or seven days of "innocuous desuetude."
Shadow and Light
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
When on the march, the army ants are as innocuous at two inches as at two miles.
Edge of the Jungle
William Beebe
Tomfoolery, nonsense; trashy, mild, and innocuous literature.
The Slang Dictionary
John Camden Hotten
That is as innocuous a statement as ever was penned of the objects of any organization.
The Great American Fraud
Samuel Hopkins Adams

British Dictionary definitions for innocuous

innocuous

adjective

having little or no adverse or harmful effect; harmless

Derived Formsinnocuously, adverbinnocuousness or innocuity (ˌɪnəˈkjuːɪtɪ), noun

Word Origin for innocuous

C16: from Latin innocuus harmless, from in- 1 + nocēre to harm

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for innocuous

adj.

1590s, from Latin innocuus "harmless," from in- "not" (see in- (1)) + nocuus "hurtful," from root of nocere "to injure, harm," from *nok-s-, suffixed form of PIE root *nek- "death" (see necro-). Related: Innocuously; innocuousness.

innocuous in Medicine

innocuous

[ĭ-nŏk′yōō-əs]

adj.

Having no adverse effect; harmless.