side effect

See also: side-effect

English

Alternative forms

• side-effect

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

side effect (plural side effects)

1. An unintended consequence, or secondary result, of any action, in addition to the main or intended consequence of that action.
   • 1987, Brundtland Report:

     The processing of certain raw materials - pulp and paper, oil, and alumina, for example - can have substantial environmental side effects.

   • 1980, Advanced Automation for Space Missions:

     A side effect of this architecture (which was designed only for efficient fabrication) is that it also performs automated repair.

   • 2007, Sylvia Escott-Stump, Nutrition and Diagnosis-Related Care‎^[1]:

     Useful for mild depression but may trigger coronary problems. A positive side effect is that it may actually help with degenerative joint disease symptoms.

   1. (medicine) An unintended consequence of a drug or therapy; usually an adverse effect, not a beneficial effect.

      Hyponym: adverse effect

   2. (programming) A change in state outside of the local environment of the function being called.

      The Eiffel programming language is somewhat purist in insisting that functions have no side effects.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "side effect": mild, moderate, serious, severe, dangerous, unpleasant, debilitating, negative, positive, nasty, bad, horrible, terrible, painful, unexpected, unintended, strong, obvious, etc.

Synonyms

• by-product

Coordinate terms

• aftereffect

Derived terms

• side-effecting

Translations

unintended consequence of any action

• Arabic: أَثَر جَانِبِيّ m (ʔaṯar jānibiyy)
• Belarusian: пабо́чны эфе́кт m (pabóčny efjékt)
• Bulgarian: страни́чен ефе́кт m (straníčen efékt)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 副作用 (zh) (fùzuòyòng)

• Czech: vedlejší účinek m
• Dutch: nevenwerking f, neveneffect (nl) n
• Esperanto: kromefiko
• Estonian: kõrvalmõju
• Finnish: sivuvaikutus (fi)
• French: effet secondaire (fr) m
• German: Nebenwirkung (de) f, Nebeneffekt (de) m
• Greek: παρενέργεια (el) f (parenérgeia)
• Hebrew: תּוֹפָעַת לְוַאי (he) f (tofa'át lvay)
• Hungarian: mellékhatás (hu)
• Italian: effetto collaterale m
• Japanese: 副作用 (ja) (ふくさよう, fukusayō)
• Korean: 부작용(副作用) (ko) (bujagyong)
• Macedonian: нуспојава f (nuspojava)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bieffekt m

• Polish: efekt uboczny (pl) m, skutek uboczny m
• Portuguese: efeito colateral m
• Russian: побо́чный эффе́кт (ru) m (pobóčnyj effékt), побо́чное де́йствие n (pobóčnoje déjstvije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ну̀спојава f

  Roman: nùspojava (sh) f

• Slovak: vedľajší účinok m
• Spanish: efecto secundario m
• Swedish: bieffekt (sv) c
• Turkish: yan etki (tr)
• Ukrainian: побі́чний ефе́кт m (pobíčnyj efékt), побі́чна ді́я f (pobíčna díja)
• Yiddish: בײַעפֿעקט m (bayefekt)

medicine: an adverse effect

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: efecte secundari
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 副作用 (zh) (fùzuòyòng)

• Dutch: nevenwerking f
• Finnish: sivuvaikutus (fi)
• French: effet secondaire (fr) m, effet indésirable m
• German: Nebenwirkung (de) f
• Greek: παρενέργεια (el) f (parenérgeia)
• Hungarian: mellékhatás (hu)
• Irish: fo-iamhairt f, fo-iarsma m
• Italian: effetto collaterale m
• Japanese: 副作用 (ja) (ふくさよう, fukusayō)
• Korean: 부작용(副作用) (ko) (bujagyong)
• Latvian: blakne (lv) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bivirkning (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: biverknad m

• Polish: efekt uboczny (pl) m
• Portuguese: efeito colateral m
• Romanian: efect secundar
• Russian: побо́чный эффе́кт (ru) m (pobóčnyj effékt)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ну̀спојава f

  Roman: nùspojava (sh) f

• Spanish: efecto secundario m
• Swedish: biverkan (sv) c, biverkning (sv) c
• Thai: ผลข้างเคียง (th) (pǒn-kâang-kiiang)
• Tibetan: ཞོར་རྐྱེན (zhor rkyen)
• Turkish: yan etki (tr)
• Welsh: sgileffaith f

computing: a state change caused by a function call

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: vedlejší účinek m
• Finnish: sivuvaikutus (fi)
• French: effet de bord (fr) m
• German: Nebeneffekt (de) m, Seiteneffekt m
• Hungarian: mellékhatás (hu), kísérő jelenség (hu)
• Irish: fo-iarsma m
• Japanese: 副作用 (ja) (ふくさよう, fukusayō)
• Korean: 부작용(副作用) (ko) (bujagyong)
• Polish: efekt uboczny (pl) m
• Russian: побо́чный эффе́кт (ru) m (pobóčnyj effékt)
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can