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• abyss
  abyss

  noun

  a deep, immeasurable space, gulf, or cavity; vast chasm.
• Abyss.
  Abyss.

  abbreviation

  Abyssinia.

abyss

¹ American  

[uh-bis] / əˈbɪs /

noun

• abysses
  plural

1. a deep, immeasurable space, gulf, or cavity; vast chasm.

2. anything that seems to be without end or is impossible to measure, define, or comprehend.

   the abyss of their grief and sorrow.

3. (in ancient cosmogony)

   1. the primal chaos before Creation.

   2. the infernal regions; hell.

   3. a subterranean ocean.

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Abyss. ² American  

abbreviation

1. Abyssinia.

2. Abyssinian.

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abyss British  

/ əˈbɪs /

noun

1. a very deep or unfathomable gorge or chasm

2. anything that appears to be endless or immeasurably deep, such as time, despair, or shame

3. hell or the infernal regions conceived of as a bottomless pit

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• abysses
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of abyss

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English abissus, from Late Latin abyssus, from Greek ábyssos “bottomless,” equivalent to a- a- ⁶ + byssós “bottom of the sea”

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Explanation

The noun abyss refers to a deep void or chasm — either literal or figurative. Making a momentous life decision with great uncertainty, like enrolling in clown college, might feel like jumping into the abyss. Traditionally, the abyss referred to the "bottomless pit" of Hell. Now it might refer to either a literal chasm or a figurative one: "Thirty years ago, we peered into this abyss and pulled back just in time." The word is sometimes used to describe a wide difference between cultures or nations. Abyss comes from Greek: a- "without" + byssos, "depth, bottom." You may know the related adjective abysmal, which means "appallingly bad" — or "way down in the depths," as it were.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

abyss abysses

A Belfast High Court judge temporarily blocked it on Saturday, warning that the long-running dispute could escalate across Northern Ireland and urging the parties to "step back from the abyss".

From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026

But I’m blown away by how “It Ends” reaches into the abyss of contemporary living and pulls out something tangible for us to chew on.

From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026

But as the Games approached, nation after nation boycotted and the event faced financial abyss.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026

“For hourly matching, the infrastructure doesn’t exist and the markets don’t exist either. Mandating something in that situation is just a leap into the abyss, which is why we have a progressive approach,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

Joaquin felt himself stepping toward the abyss with no boundaries to keep him from falling.

From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway

At his debut press conference, he vowed to face down "multitudinous minefields and 30,000-metre abysses" in reforming China.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

And while the play never explicitly explores its underlying theme—that music can help bridge the gaps, or the abysses, that divide people—the deft integration of story and song illuminates it naturally.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026

Ripples of electronic feedback crest into peaks and valleys of stretched echoes, decayed into hollowed abysses.

From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2022

Tux is philosophically speculative, delivering aphoristic riffs that reveal Kierkegaardian abysses in such daily trivialities as a campfire, and mini marshmallows in cocoa.

From The New Yorker ● May 28, 2019

The Jelu mountains, the highest in Central Kurdistan,—a mass of crags, spires, and fantastic parapets of rock, with rifts and abysses of 282 extraordinary depth,—come down almost directly upon it.

From Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume II (of 2) Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

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Related Words

• chasm
• crevasse
• depth
• void

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