ruinous
Americanadjective
-
bringing or tending to bring ruin; destructive; disastrous.
a ruinous war.
- Synonyms:
- catastrophic, devastating, calamitous
-
fallen into ruin; dilapidated.
a ruinous house.
-
consisting of ruins.
a ruinous city from antiquity.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ruinous
1350–1400; Middle English ruynouse < Latin ruīnōsus, equivalent to ruīn ( a ) ruin + -ōsus -ous
Explanation
Something ruinous is really terrible or devastating, like a ruinous hurricane that floods your house or the ruinous effect of a new law on a country's poorest citizens. The adjective ruinous perfectly describes something so bad that it truly causes ruin, "the destruction or disintegration of something." A house fire can be ruinous, and so can a bad hand at a poker table, if the player has bet her last dollar. Ruinous and ruin comes from the Latin root ruina, "a collapse, a rushing down, a tumbling down."
Vocabulary lists containing ruinous
Hamilton
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "Q" "R" and "S"
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Dubliners
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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.
And he raised the specter of ruinous financial liability across the fossil fuel industry if state and local lawsuits proliferate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
The ban will affect a small subset of industries but could be ruinous for those companies if the trade prohibitions go into effect in three weeks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
“Giving even a single jury the power to impose ruinous liability on selected members of the energy industry is a recipe for chaos,” the companies said in the document.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
The difference is not ruinous, but it is the first indication that the show may be playing loosely with its promise of meals costing less than $5 per serving.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
But deep in his heart there was something that restrained him; he could not strike this thing lying in the dust, forlorn, ruinous, utterly wretched.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
