execrable
Americanadjective
-
utterly detestable; abominable; abhorrent.
-
very bad.
an execrable stage performance.
adjective
-
deserving to be execrated; abhorrent
-
of very poor quality
an execrable meal
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of execrable
1350–1400 for earlier sense “expressing a curse”; 1480–90 execrable for def. 1; Middle English < Latin ex ( s ) ecrābilis accursed, detestable. See execrate, -able
Explanation
If something's execrable it's really and truly, unbelievably, absolutely the worst. Execrable is often used as a harshly critical term in the arts, when a reviewer really wants to throw the book at something. Not surprisingly, the word comes from a Latin word meaning "to utter a curse; to hate or abhor." Tough words for bad art. Perhaps part of the power and nastiness of execrable lies in the word's similarity to excrement — but that's a vocabulary word we're not touching in this entry!
Vocabulary lists containing execrable
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"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" by Frederick Douglass
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I almost feel bad for him trying so pathetically to defend such an execrable entity like the Iranian regime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
We are only one week into 2026, and already the execrable nature of 2025 is overflowing into the new year.
From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2026
Since becoming team president in the 2013-14 season, Jeanie Buss and her hand-picked executive brain trust have compiled an execrable 287-427 record.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2022
And the aforementioned Land, Air & Sea, in which the fish and chicken patties of the Filet-O-Fish and the McChicken, respectively, were inserted into a Big Mac, was truly execrable.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 8, 2022
And within a week, recalled one of his students, he had filled his office blackboard in LeConte Hall with “a drawing—very bad, an execrable drawing—of a bomb.”
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
