destructive
/dɪˈstɹʊktɪv/ · des·tru·ctive
adjective
- Causing destruction; damaging. The hurricane left a destructive trail of fallen trees and flooded homes.
- Causing breakdown or disassembly. Catabolism is a destructive metabolism that involves the breakdown of molecules and release of energy.
- Lossy; causing irreversible change. Blurring an image is a destructive operation, but rotating an image is not.
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Did you know? In digital photography, ‘destructive editing’ refers to changes that permanently alter the original file, a concept that sparked the development of non‑destructive editing software.