destructive

English

Etymology

From Middle French destructif, from Latin destructivus, from past participle of destruere (“to tear down, destroy”) + -ivus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈstɹʌktɪv/, /dɪˈstɹʊktɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

destructive (comparative more destructive, superlative most destructive)

1. Causing destruction; damaging.
   • 1980 August 30, David Rothenberg, “A New York State of Confusion”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 5:

     The pastures are filled with gay political drop-outs, persons of reasonable intent who found the scene personally destructive.

   • 2013 February 14, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: A Good Day To Die Hard”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     After rescuing his estranged daughter in the last film, Live Free Or Die Hard, Willis heads to Russia to rescue his estranged son (Jai Courtney), a CIA agent on a mission to protect a whistleblower (Sebastian Koch) from a corrupt government official (Sergei Kolesnikov) with no shortage of destructive resources at his disposal.

2. Causing breakdown or disassembly.

   Catabolism is a destructive metabolism that involves the breakdown of molecules and release of energy.

3. (computing) Lossy; causing irreversible change.

   Blurring an image is a destructive operation, but rotating an image is not.

Synonyms

• calamitous
• catastrophic
• devastating
• disastrous
• eradicative
• harmful
• pernicious
• ruinous
• wrackful
• wreckful

Antonyms

• constructive
• nondestructive, non-destructive
• productive

Derived terms

• angiodestructive
• antidestructive
• autodestructive
• cyclodestructive
• cytodestructive
• destructive backspace
• destructive criticism
• destructive distillation
• destructively
• destructiveness
• destructive read
• destructive sorites
• destructivism
• destructivist
• destructivity
• hyperdestructive
• immunodestructive
• indestructive
• interdestructive
• macrodestructive
• neurodestructive
• nondestructive
• non-destructive read
• omnidestructive
• overdestructive
• self-destructive
• semidestructive
• superdestructive
• ultradestructive
• undestructive

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *strew- (0 c, 27 e)

Translations

causing destruction; damaging

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Armenian: կործանիչ (hy) (korcaničʻ), կործանարար (hy) (korcanarar) Bulgarian: разрушителен (bg) (razrušitelen) Catalan: destructiu Chinese: Mandarin: 破壞性的 / 破坏性的 (pòhuàixìng de) Czech: ničivý (cs), destruktivní (cs) Danish: destruktiv Dutch: destructief (nl), destructieve (nl), verwoestend (nl), verwoestende (nl) Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: tuhoisa (fi), destruktiivinen (fi) French: destructif (fr) German: destruktiv (de), schädlich (de), zerstörend (de) Greek: καταστροφικός (el) m (katastrofikós), καταστρεπτικός (el) m (katastreptikós), αφανιστικός (el) (afanistikós) Ancient: ὀλέθριος (oléthrios), ὀλοός (oloós), δηλητήριος (dēlētḗrios) Hebrew: הרסני (harsany) Hindi: please add this translation if you can Hungarian: destruktív (hu), kártékony (hu), pusztító (hu) Ido: please add this translation if you can Interlingua: destructive Irish: urbhadhach, arganach, sladach Old Irish: bráthamail Italian: distruttivo (it) Japanese: 破壊的な (ja) (hakaiteki na) Korean: 파괴적 (ko) (pagoejeok) Latin: exitiosus, exitiābilis, destructivus Persian: مخرب (fa) Polish: destrukcyjny (pl) m Portuguese: destrutivo (pt) Romanian: distructiv (ro) m or n, distrugător (ro) m or n Russian: разруши́тельный (ru) (razrušítelʹnyj) Sanskrit: हिंस्र (sa) (hiṃsra) Scottish Gaelic: millteach, sgriosach, sgriosail Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ра́зо̄ран, де̏структӣван, ру̀шилачкӣ Roman: rázōran (sh), dȅstruktīvan (sh), rùšilačkī (sh) Spanish: destructivo (es) Swedish: destruktiv (sv) Tagalog: mapanira, mapangwasak Tamil: please add this translation if you can Telugu: please add this translation if you can Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: yıkıcı (tr), tahripkâr Ukrainian: руйнівний (rujnivnyj), деструктивний (destruktyvnyj) Vietnamese: phá hoại (vi), huỷ diệt (vi) Zulu: please add this translation if you can

causing breakdown

Chinese: Mandarin: 解體性的 / 解体性的 (jiětǐxìng de) Finnish: hajottava (fi) Greek: καταλυτικός (el) m (katalytikós) Russian: please add this translation if you can Swedish: destruktiv (sv)

lossy

Chinese: Mandarin: 損失性的 / 损失性的 (sǔnshīxìng de) Finnish: peruuttamaton (fi), destruktiivinen (fi) Russian: please add this translation if you can

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɛs.tʁyk.tiv/

Adjective

destructive

1. feminine singular of destructif

Latin

Adjective

dēstrūctīve

1. vocative masculine singular of dēstrūctīvus