noun · neutral
harm
UK/hɑːm/US/hɑrm/HAM
damage or negative effect on someone or something; often used as an uncountable noun.
Examples
“Long-term exposure to air pollution can cause serious harm to public health.”
“We must avoid doing harm to local communities when we develop infrastructure projects.”
“The campaign focuses on preventing harm to endangered species.”
Band 8 sentence
“Prolonged exposure to poor air quality can do irreversible harm to vulnerable populations.”
Collocations
- cause harm
- do harm
- harm to
Word family
Common mistakes
They caused many harms to the village.→They caused a lot of harm to the village.
Smoking is harmful for your lungs.→Smoking is harmful to your lungs.
He made harm to the environment.→He did harm to the environment.
Say it for a higher band
5hurt→6damage→7+harm
Synonyms
damage
injury
Easily confused
damage
“The storm caused extensive damage to the coastal villages.”
Related words
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In -ful / -less
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