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I am looking for a word that comparatively has the same meaning, except not specific to a medical context (confirmed through Merriam-Webster the word is specific to medical context).

An example for usage would be, e.g., inquiring whether submitting an application for a particular government program (let's say Medicare) might have any potentially detrimental impacts to a different pending/future application (let's say SSDI), or is for whatever reason otherwise not advisable, not favorable, not good form/convention/practice, etc.

Edit: per comments, adding my usage example... ... So what When taking..., are there any contraindications to...? would be to When applying for..., are there any [blank] to my...eligibility?

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  • Single word requests should include a sample sentence demonstrating how the word would be used. Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 5:50
  • I've heard "contraindicated" used in nonmedical contexts. Such usage may defy the dictionary, but is still reasonably clear in meaning. One might argue non-medical use is allowable as a figure of speech.
    – nnnnnn
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 5:54
  • @KillingTime Done, apologies for the oversight!
    – Arctiic
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 13:08
  • Does anyone else concur with @nnnnnn? And would this be in an informal setting or do you think it'd be SFW?
    – Arctiic
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 13:14
  • Are there any negatives to my eligibility?
    – GEdgar
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 13:14

3 Answers 3

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Although not a single word, consider red flag, which can be used to mean:

: something that indicates or draws attention to a problem, danger, or irregularity
Merriam-Webster

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Assuming what you're looking for when you mean "contraindicated" means something like not recommended, then "inadvisable" seems to fit. It's just what you had in your question as "not advised", except it's one word.

adjective
Likely to have unfortunate consequences; unwise.
‘It became clear that housing a million gallons of whisky and rum under one roof was inadvisable.’
Oxford Dictionaries (lexico.com)

Thinking about it some more, you could use many words, some of which you used in your question, with a negative prefix morpheme (un/in), such as "unfavorable" etc.

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  • Please excuse my ignorance for the correct vernacular, but I was hoping for a single word or phrase that refers to the negative interactions in the same manner structurally(?), which I guess I should have given a more specific example.
    – Arctiic
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 4:36
  • So what When taking..., are there any contraindications to...? would be to When applying for..., are there any [blank] to my...eligibility?
    – Arctiic
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 4:42
  • @Arctiic Please edit your post with this example of intended usage.
    – jxh
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 5:33
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    I can't stop saying "exclusion criterion" in my head.
    – bers
    Commented Jan 24, 2020 at 6:49
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The word "cross-purpose" that kind of gets at what you are looking for.

Generally two or more things/forces are "at cross-purposes" to one another, meaning they are pursuing contradictory goals to one another. It's kind of a turn of phrase more than a literal term, but it's the closest thing I could think of to a "secular" version of contraindication.

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    "cross-purpose - 1. a contrary aim or purpose." I never thought to say "a cross-purpose", it was always "at cross-purposes" for me. Thanks for the lesson.
    – Zebrafish
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 5:34

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