Baleful — Meaning, Definition & Synonyms

Baleful (adjective) — Senses, Synonyms & Antonyms

1. being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come

   "a dark, baleful sky portending a tornado"

   similar: dire, direful, doomy, foreboding, ill, ill-boding, inauspicious, menacing, minatory, ominous, portentous, sinister, threatening
   related: black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dim, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich (chiefly Scottish), elegiac, forlorn, funereal, gloomy, glum, godforsaken, gray, lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, somber, sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched, discouraging, disheartening, hopeless, unfavorable, unpromising, unpropitious, ill-fated, ill-starred, star-crossed, troubled, unfortunate, unlucky, evil, malign, malignant
   opposite: unthreatening
   near: auspicious, benign, bright, encouraging, favorable, golden, heartening, hopeful, promising, propitious, prosperous

2. causing or capable of causing harm

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

   similar: adverse, bad, baneful, damaging, dangerous, deleterious, detrimental, evil, harmful, hurtful, ill, injurious, mischievous, nocuous, noxious, pernicious, prejudicial, wicked
   related: hostile, inimical, unfriendly, contagious, deadly, infectious, infective, pestiferous, pestilent, pestilential, poisonous, venomous, insidious, menacing, ominous, sinister, threatening, hazardous, imperiling, jeopardizing, parlous, perilous, risky, unsafe, unsound, nasty, noisome, unhealthful, unhealthy, unwholesome, destructive, fatal, killer, lethal, malignant, ruinous
   opposite: anodyne, benign, harmless, hurtless, innocent, innocuous, inoffensive, safe
   near: advantageous, beneficial, useful, favorable, good, propitious, curative, healthful, healthy, helpful, palliative, remedial, salubrious, salutary, wholesome, secure, sound, benignant, noncorrosive, nondestructive, nonfatal, noninfectious, nonlethal, nonpoisonous, nonpolluting, nontoxic, nonvenomous

3. likely to cause or capable of causing death

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

   similar: deadly, deathly, fatal, fell, killer, lethal, mortal, murderous, pestilent, terminal, vital
   related: baneful, deleterious, destructive, harmful, injurious, noxious, pernicious, truculent, infectious, infective, pestilential, poisonous, sublethal, toxic, virulent, dangerous, grave, grievous, hazardous, jeopardizing, menacing, parlous, perilous, risky, serious, threatening, ugly, unhealthy, unsound, bloody, internecine, sanguinary, sanguine
   opposite: healthful, healthy, nonfatal, nonlethal, wholesome
   near: beneficial, restorative, salubrious, salutary, alleviative, corrective, curative, remedial, tonic, advantageous, useful, nonpoisonous, nontoxic, safe