counterproductive

See also: counter-productive

English

Etymology

From counter- +‎ productive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkaʊntəpɹəˈdʌktɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

counterproductive (comparative more counterproductive, superlative most counterproductive)

1. More of a hindrance than a help.
   • 2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 25:

     It's most likely that these kinds of cuts to service frequencies, train formations, and service start and finish times would cost more in revenue than they save in cost and would therefore be counterproductive.

Antonyms

• productive

Derived terms

• counterproductively
• counterproductiveness

Translations

more of a hindrance than a help

• Afrikaans: teenproduktief
• Albanian: antiproduktiv
• Arabic: نَتَائِج عَكْسِيَّة (natāʔij ʕaksiyya)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: контрпрадукты́ўны (kontrpraduktýŭny)
• Bulgarian: контрапродукти́вно (kontraproduktívno)
• Catalan: contraproduent
• Cebuano: kontra-produktibo
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 適得其反 / 适得其反 (zh) (shìdéqífǎn), 反效果的 (fǎn xiàoguǒ de), 產生反作用的 / 产生反作用的 (chǎnshēng zuòyòng de)

• Czech: kontraproduktivní m
• Danish: kontraproduktiv (da)
• Dutch: averechts (nl)
• Esperanto: kontraŭintenca, malefika
• Finnish: haitallinen (fi)
• French: contreproductif (fr), contre-productif (fr) m
• Galician: contraproducente
• Georgian: კონტრპროდუქტიული (ḳonṭrṗrodukṭiuli)
• German: kontraproduktiv (de)
• Greek: αντιπαραγωγικός (el) (antiparagogikós)
• Haitian Creole: kontreproduktiv
• Hungarian: kontraproduktív
• Igbo: imebi
• Indonesian: kontraproduktif (id)
• Italian: controproducente (it)
• Japanese: 反生産的 (han seisan-teki)
• Kyrgyz: каршылыктуу (karşılıktuu)
• Macedonian: контрапродуктивен (kontraproduktiven)
• Polish: kontrproduktywny (pl), przeciwskuteczny (pl)
• Portuguese: contraprodutivo
• Romanian: contraproductiv
• Russian: контрпродукти́вный (ru) (kontrproduktívnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: kontraproduktivan (sh)
• Spanish: contraproducente (es), contraproductivo
• Swedish: kontraproduktiv (sv)
• Tamil: எதிர் விளைவுகளைத்தான் (etir viḷaivukaḷaittāṉ)
• Ukrainian: контрпродукти́вний (kontrproduktývnyj)

See also

• adaptive versus maladaptive
• helpful versus unhelpful
• useful versus useless

References

• “counterproductive”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.