detrimental
det-ruh-MEN-tuladjMeaning causing harm or damage
Memory hook de-TRIM-ental: too much TRIM does HARM. Pip trims Grandpa’s little bush, then trims some more, and more, until only a bare stick is left; all that trimming is detrimental to the bush.
Staying up all night is detrimental to your grades.
In context The new parking lot proved detrimental to the pond: oil washed off the pavement with every rain, and within two years the frogs had disappeared.
Similar harmful, damaging, injurious, destructive
Opposite beneficial, helpful, salutary
From Latin detrimentum, “loss, damage,” from deterere (to rub away, to wear down).