Synonyms of baleful

baleful 1 of 2

adjective (1)

ˈbāl-fəl 

1

as in ominous

being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come

a dark, baleful sky portending a tornado

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ominous
• sinister
• menacing
• threatening
• bleak
• portentous
• minatory
• dark
• direful
• darkening
• somber
• inauspicious
• murky
• dire
• foreboding
• grey
• lonely
• black
• depressive
• unfortunate
• desolate
• depressing
• ill
• gray
• ill-boding
• doomy
• dim
• morbid
• unfavorable
• sombre
• cold
• sullen
• lugubrious
• saturnine
• sepulchral
• cheerless
• morose
• gloomy
• lonesome
• dismal
• elegiac
• unpropitious
• funereal
• disconsolate
• glum
• dreary
• drear
• forlorn
• malignant
• discouraging
• troubled
• unpromising
• chill
• miserable
• comfortless
• tenebrous
• cloudy
• evil
• malign
• hopeless
• wretched
• disheartening
• godforsaken
• plutonian
• elegiacal
• dreich
• Cimmerian
• sunless
• unlucky
• tenebrific
• ill-starred
• ill-fated
• star-crossed

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• favorable
• golden
• bright
• benign
• promising
• hopeful
• encouraging
• unthreatening
• auspicious
• prosperous
• propitious
• heartening

2

as in adverse

causing or capable of causing harm

contends that the violent content of so much of popular entertainment is a baleful influence on our society

Synonyms & Similar Words

• adverse
• harmful
• detrimental
• damaging
• dangerous
• bad
• baneful
• poisonous
• pernicious
• deleterious
• evil
• noxious
• infectious
• hazardous
• injurious
• mischievous
• wicked
• prejudicial
• hurtful
• ill
• hostile
• nocuous
• deadly
• sinister
• destructive
• venomous
• ominous
• lethal
• infective
• insidious
• inimical
• menacing
• unsafe
• threatening
• unfriendly
• pestilential
• risky
• malignant
• contagious
• pestilent
• fatal
• pestiferous
• perilous
• unwholesome
• killer
• ruinous
• unhealthful
• unhealthy
• unsound
• nasty
• parlous
• imperilling
• noisome
• imperiling
• jeopardizing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• benign
• harmless
• innocuous
• innocent
• useful
• beneficial
• safe
• favorable
• advantageous
• inoffensive
• good
• propitious
• salutary
• anodyne
• remedial
• salubrious
• healthful
• helpful
• wholesome
• curative
• sound
• healthy
• palliative
• hurtless
• benignant
• secure
• nonlethal
• nonpoisonous
• nonfatal
• nontoxic
• nondestructive
• noninfectious
• noncorrosive
• nonpolluting
• nonvenomous

3

as in lethal

likely to cause or capable of causing death

a medicine that is beneficial in small doses but baleful in large

Synonyms & Similar Words

• lethal
• deadly
• poisonous
• fatal
• infectious
• infective
• killer
• harmful
• murderous
• toxic
• terminal
• mortal
• baneful
• dangerous
• deathly
• pestilent
• destructive
• pernicious
• fell
• deleterious
• vital
• injurious
• noxious
• virulent
• hazardous
• truculent
• menacing
• serious
• pestilential
• threatening
• perilous
• ugly
• risky
• sanguinary
• bloody
• sublethal
• grave
• grievous
• unhealthy
• parlous
• sanguine
• unsound
• internecine
• jeopardizing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• healthful
• wholesome
• salutary
• beneficial
• healthy
• nonlethal
• nonfatal
• salubrious
• restorative
• corrective
• remedial
• curative
• useful
• tonic
• advantageous
• safe
• alleviative
• nontoxic
• nonpoisonous

baneful

2 of 2

adjective (2)

ˈbān-fəl 

as in harmful

causing or capable of causing harm

the incredibly baneful effect that drug addiction has on so many communities

Synonyms & Similar Words

• harmful
• adverse
• detrimental
• dangerous
• damaging
• bad
• poisonous
• pernicious
• injurious
• hazardous
• deleterious
• noxious
• evil
• baleful
• infectious
• wicked
• prejudicial
• mischievous
• hurtful
• ill
• nocuous
• hostile
• destructive
• deadly
• venomous
• sinister
• unsafe
• infective
• lethal
• inimical
• insidious
• ominous
• unfriendly
• pestilential
• risky
• threatening
• perilous
• contagious
• fatal
• pestiferous
• pestilent
• menacing
• unwholesome
• malignant
• unhealthful
• ruinous
• unhealthy
• unsound
• killer
• parlous
• nasty
• noisome
• imperilling
• imperiling
• jeopardizing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• benign
• harmless
• beneficial
• innocuous
• safe
• innocent
• useful
• advantageous
• favorable
• inoffensive
• good
• propitious
• salutary
• healthful
• wholesome
• anodyne
• curative
• salubrious
• remedial
• helpful
• healthy
• sound
• palliative
• hurtless
• secure
• benignant
• nonpoisonous
• nontoxic
• noninfectious
• nonfatal
• nondestructive
• nonlethal
• noncorrosive
• nonpolluting
• nonvenomous

Synonym Chooser

How is the word baneful different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of baneful are deleterious, detrimental, noxious, and pernicious. While all these words mean "exceedingly harmful," baneful implies injury through poisoning or destroying.

the baneful notion that discipline destroys creativity

In what contexts can deleterious take the place of baneful?

While in some cases nearly identical to baneful, deleterious applies to what has an often unsuspected harmful effect.

a diet found to have deleterious effects

When is detrimental a more appropriate choice than baneful?

The words detrimental and baneful are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, detrimental implies obvious harmfulness to something specified.

the detrimental effects of excessive drinking

Where would noxious be a reasonable alternative to baneful?

The words noxious and baneful can be used in similar contexts, but noxious applies to what is both offensive and injurious to the health of a body or mind.

noxious chemical fumes

When is it sensible to use pernicious instead of baneful?

Although the words pernicious and baneful have much in common, pernicious implies irreparable harm done through evil or insidious corrupting or undermining.

the claim that pornography has a pernicious effect on society

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of baleful

Adjective

Women are thought of as contaminants in the heya and arm candy outside it; the sponsors exert a baleful commercial pressure on the fighters. —Jesse Green, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2025

At another, this baleful ribbon emanates from the shell of a totaled BMW 325iS, the very model of car once associated in the region with gang terror — elsewhere shown cruising and spinning on dusty roads, like urban harbingers of doom amid rural tranquility. —Guy Lodge, Variety, 23 Feb. 2025

Adjective

We are mired in a baneful pandemic unlike anything endured for a century, parsing our lives into 14-day increments of health and survival — or not. —Peter M. Leschak, Star Tribune, 31 July 2020

This resulted in all the baneful consequences of the French Revolution, which Edmund Burke so brilliantly exposed in his Reflections on the Revolution in France. —Jaithirth Rao, Quartz India, 4 Nov. 2019

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