Other forms: monsters
A monster is a large frightening imaginary creature. A sea monster, monsters under the bed, a monster of a wave.
It also describes a real person who has done something terrible, and there is an argument about that use: calling somebody a monster puts them outside humanity, which can make it harder to understand how ordinary people do terrible things.
1nounmonsterA large frightening imaginary creature.
“My little brother thinks there's a monster hiding under his bed.”
monster is a creature.
Latin monstrum meant a portent or omen, from monere, to warn. A monster was first a warning sign.
Middle English
monstre
English, today
monster
From Middle English monstre. From Middle English monstre, from Old French monstre, mostre, moustre, from Latin mōnstrum. Displaced native Old English fīfel and Old English þyrs.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA