abysmal

American

[uh-biz-muhl] / əˈbɪz məl /

adjective

of or like an abyss; immeasurably deep or great.
extremely or hopelessly bad or severe.

abysmal ignorance; abysmal poverty.

abysmal British

/ əˈbɪzməl /

adjective

immeasurable; very great

abysmal stupidity
informal extremely bad

an abysmal film

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

abysmally adverb
ultra-abysmal adjective

Etymology

Origin of abysmal

First recorded in 1650–60; abysm + -al ¹

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'm grateful for the staff there because I think had they not been as good as they were, my whole journey there would have been absolutely abysmal, because I felt really, really rubbish," she said.

From BBC • Mar. 10, 2026

We are drowning in a sea of abysmal, artificially generated prose.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026

For the rest of the time, the returns were abysmal.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 18, 2026

Two years ago, the Bruins were headed for what looked like a truly abysmal season.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2026

If my decisions reflected this abysmal reality, how could things ever get better?

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023