hideous
Americanadjective
-
horrible or frightful to the senses; repulsive; very ugly.
a hideous monster.
- Antonyms:
- attractive, pleasing
-
shocking or revolting to the moral sense.
a hideous crime.
-
distressing; appalling.
the hideous expense of moving one's home to another city.
adjective
-
extremely ugly; repulsive
a hideous person
-
terrifying and horrific
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hideous
1275–1325; Middle English hidous < Old French hisdos, equivalent to hisde horror, fright (perhaps < Old High German *egisida, akin to egisôn, agison to frighten) + -os -ous; suffix later assimilated to -eous
Explanation
Hideous is a word that means extremely ugly. Anything or anybody that is painful — and a little scary — to look at is hideous. This is a strong word. If you have a zit on your nose, you might feel hideous, but you're probably not. Only terrifyingly ugly people and things are truly hideous. In horror movies, the special effects team tries to make the monsters hideous, so moviegoers will be scared. This word can also be a more general term for awful things. For example, you could say the effects of a concussion are so severe that they're hideous.
Vocabulary lists containing hideous
"The Tell-Tale Heart," Vocabulary from the short story
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"Harrison Bergeron"
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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.
McGill, who came up with the idea for “Our Hideous Progeny” as a graduate student at North Carolina State University, wanted to veer away from the original “Frankenstein” conception that knowledge is inherently bad.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 15, 2024
On Aug. 3, 2019, Genco wrote a manifesto entitled “A Hideous Symphony” by “Tres Genco, the socially exiled incel,” in which he explained why he signed up for Army training camp.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 22, 2021
She has single-handedly carried movies like Hideous Kinky, Revolutionary Road, and Little Children, all of which would likely have been terrible without her formidable presence at the center.
From Slate • May 16, 2021
You can now sit on my Shelf of Hideous Mistakes, in between “buying a Friends boxset in 2000” and “dating a 40-year-old who lived with his parents by choice”.
From The Guardian • Feb. 11, 2017
"Lady Christiana just had her hair color changed from brown to a plum purple. Hideous color. And at this hour. I wonder which teahouse she's patronizing."
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
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.
