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Evil vs Harm - What's the difference?

evil | harm | Related terms |

Harm is a synonym of evil.



As nouns the difference between evil and harm

is that evil is moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good while harm is injury; hurt; damage; detriment; misfortune.

As an adjective evil

is intending to harm; malevolent.

As a verb harm is

to cause injury to another; to hurt; to cause damage to something.

evil

English

Adjective

  • Intending to harm; malevolent.
    • Do you think that companies that engage in animal testing are evil ?
  • Morally corrupt.
    • an evil plot to kill innocent people
  • * Shakespeare
    • Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, / When death's approach is seen so terrible.
  • Unpleasant. (rfex)
  • Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy xxii. 19
    • He hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The owl shrieked at thy birth — an evil sign.
  • * Milton
    • Evil news rides post, while good news baits.
  • (obsolete) Having harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.
    • an evil''' beast; an '''evil''' plant; an '''evil crop
  • * Bible, Matthew vii. 18
    • A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
  • (computing, programming, slang) undesirable; harmful; bad practice
    • Global variables are evil ; storing processing context in object member variables allows those objects to be reused in a much more flexible way.

    Synonyms

    * nefarious * malicious * malevolent * See also

    Antonyms

    * good

    Derived terms

    * evil eye * evil laugh * evil laughter * evilly * evil-minded * Evil One * evil twin * evilness

    Noun

    (wikipedia evil)
  • Moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good.
  • * Bible, (Ecclesiastes). ix. 3
    • The heart of the sons of men is full of evil .
  • * , chapter=16
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The preposterous altruism too!
  • Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; anything which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury; mischief; harm.
  • * (John Milton)
    • evils which our own misdeeds have wrought
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • The evil that men do lives after them.
  • (obsolete) A malady or disease; especially in the phrase king's evil (scrofula).
  • * (Shakespeare)
  • * Addison
    • He [Edward the Confessor] was the first that touched for the evil .

    Antonyms

    * good

    Derived terms

    * axis of evil * evildoer * king's evil * lesser evil * necessary evil * poll evil

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    harm

    English

    (wikipedia harm)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Injury; hurt; damage; detriment; misfortune.
  • * , chapter=13
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.}}
  • That which causes injury, damage, or loss.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • We, ignorant of ourselves, / Beg often our own harms .

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "harm": bodily, physical, environmental, emotional, financial, serious, irreparable, potential, long-term, short-term, permanent, lasting, material, substantial.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause injury to another; to hurt; to cause damage to something.

    • Derived terms

    * do no harm * harmer * harmless * harm's way * self-harm * unharmed

    Anagrams

    * ----