From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishinnocuousin‧noc‧u‧ous /ɪˈnɒkjuəs $ ɪˈnɑːk-/ adjective HARM/BE BAD FOROFFENDnot offensive, dangerous, or harmful SYN harmless an innocuous remark He’s a perfectly innocuous young man. —innocuously adverb
Examples from the Corpus
innocuous• The producer dismissed the comment as quite innocuous.• innocuous chemicals• The murder suspect was an innocuous-looking man with wire-framed glasses.• Someone stood up and asked the professor an apparently innocuous question about his laboratory work.• The interviewer only asked boring, innocuous questions.Origin innocuous (1500-1600) Latin innocuus, from nocere; → INNOCENT1 