abyss

[uh-bis]

See more synonyms for abyss on Thesaurus.com

noun

a deep, immeasurable space, gulf, or cavity; vast chasm.
anything profound, unfathomable, or infinite: the abyss of time.
(in ancient cosmogony)
1. the primal chaos before Creation.
2. the infernal regions; hell.
3. a subterranean ocean.

Origin of abyss

1350–1400; earlier abisse, Middle English abissus < Late Latin abyssus < Greek ábyssos bottomless, equivalent to a- a-⁶ + byssós bottom of the sea

Abyss.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for abyss

void, depth, crevasse, chasm, gulf, fissure, gorge, hole, pit, abysm

Examples from the Web for abyss

Contemporary Examples of abyss

But, Ali warns all that can change quickly if Anbar continues to crumble, “right now, we are looking into the Abyss.”
Iraqis Swear: Baghdad Airport is Safe From ISIS
Susannah George
October 13, 2014
And my beloved Zimbabwe has sunk from a promising beacon into an abyss of greed and dictatorship.
How I Got Addicted to Africa (and Wrote a Thriller About It)
Todd Moss
September 9, 2014
But when patients open their jaws, he totters on the abyss and gets no steadying hand from God.
Joshua Ferris’s New Novel Chronicles an Existential Dentist in Despair
Tom LeClair
May 6, 2014
And when I made the Abyss, which had a giant wave scene in it, those stopped.
James Cameron on How to Find Flight MH370, Climate Change, Leonardo DiCaprio, and More
Marlow Stern
April 12, 2014
At one point he fell down a crevasse and was left dangling in the abyss from a rope, up which he dragged his disintegrating body.
Six Greatest Acts of Human Endurance
Nico Hines
November 6, 2013

Historical Examples of abyss

Kirkwood groaned with despair of his inability to fathom the abyss of his self-contempt.
The Black Bag
Louis Joseph Vance
Pierre could divine that an abyss was opening, and dared not insist.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
But if one falls, that is no reason to throw oneself in the abyss.
A Comedy of Marriage and Other Tales
Guy De Maupassant
Invoke not the unhallowed spirits of the abyss; invoke the spotless synod of the Gods.
Imogen
William Godwin
Between this time and that I am now speaking of was an abyss.
The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete
Duc de Saint-Simon

British Dictionary definitions for abyss

abyss

noun

a very deep or unfathomable gorge or chasm
anything that appears to be endless or immeasurably deep, such as time, despair, or shame
hell or the infernal regions conceived of as a bottomless pit

Word Origin for abyss

C16: via Late Latin from Greek abussos bottomless (as in the phrase abussos limnē bottomless lake), from a- 1 + bussos depth

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

Word Origin and History for abyss

late 14c., earlier abime (c.1300, from a form in Old French), from Late Latin abyssus "bottomless pit," from Greek abyssos (limne) "bottomless (pool)," from a- "without" (see a- (2)) + byssos "bottom," possibly related to bathos "depth."