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execrable

US/ˈɛksɪkɹəbl/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,031 of 15,258neutral

Execrable means extremely bad, and deserving to be cursed. Execrable handwriting.

It is far stronger than poor and is nearly always used about work rather than people. To call something execrable is a reviewer's word and sounds deliberately literary.

Definitions of execrable

  1. 1adjectiveexecrableExtremely bad, and deserving to be cursed.C2

    “The coffee was execrable and everybody drank it anyway.”

execrable is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin execrabilis comes from execrari, to curse, from ex plus sacer, sacred.

  1. Latin

    execrabilis

  2. Old French

    execrable

  3. English, today

    execrable

From Old French execrable, from Latin execrabilis.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

execrable in the wild

  • The Council determined that the execrable act only highlighted Israel's need to respect previous UN Resolutions and condemned Israel for failing to do so.

    United Nations Security Council Resolution 271

  • As a poet he is described as "execrable", and reliant on Corelli's promotion of his works.

    Eric Mackay

  • Evelyn wrote that "This week, a most execrable murder was committed on Dr.

    Andrew Clench

  • In The Nation, Michelle Goldberg called it "an execrable novel" but also "a fascinating book" given King's public positions.

    Vale of Tears (novel)

  • But the local media managed Amodio's unexpected presence as an occasion to open up the "most execrable and obscure part of the Tupamaros' history".

    Héctor Amodio Pérez

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.