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horrendous

UK/həˈɹɛndəs/US/həˈɹɛndəs/
adjectiveB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,235 of 15,258leans spoken

Horrendous means shockingly bad or frightening. Horrendous injuries, a horrendous mistake, horrendous traffic.

It is one of the strongest words in ordinary use and is applied to traffic and to weather constantly, which weakens it for the things that deserve it. The Latin behind it means to be dreaded, and horror and horrid are relatives.

Definitions of horrendous

  1. 1adjectivehorrendousShockingly bad or frightening.B2+

    “The weather was horrendous, with freezing rain and gales all week.”

horrendous is a quality.

Also accepted in games: horrific

Where it comes from

Latin horrendus means to be dreaded, from horrere, to bristle or shudder.

  1. Latin

    horrendus

  2. English, today

    horrendous

Built from

  • horreō · Latin — to dread

Borrowed from Latin horrendus, future passive participle (gerundive) of horreō (“to dread”) -ous.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

horrendous in the wild

  • The film is a story about supernaturally beautiful raccoon pelts (called "pine lights") that cause anyone who seeks to profit by them to commit horrendous acts.

    Pelts (Masters of Horror)

  • In May 1985 he was to witness a nightmare when 56 spectators were killed in a horrendous stand fire while playing Bradford City.

    Phil Turner (footballer, born 1962)

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.