awe-inspiring
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of awe-inspiring
First recorded in 1805–15
Explanation
When something is so astonishing or magnificent that you can hardly speak, it's awe-inspiring. You dream might be to travel to Arizona to see the awe-inspiring sight of the Grand Canyon. What's awe-inspiring is in the eye of the beholder — in other words, your first visit to New York may provide one awe-inspiring sight after another, from the towering skyscrapers to the Statue of Liberty. Someone born and raised there might be unimpressed, finding the rugged coast of Maine to be far more awe-inspiring. If something inspires a feeling of awe in you (a sense of overwhelming wonder), it's awe-inspiring.
Vocabulary lists containing awe-inspiring
Amazing
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Amazing
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Amazing
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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.
“It’s beautiful and awe inspiring, and the acoustics are really amazing,” he said, “but our whole thing was finding venues that were big enough to hold a lot of people.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 10, 2023
It’s an experience that’s inherently fleeting, always different and typically awe inspiring.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 5, 2023
Australian singer Nick Cave has said he is attending the Coronation for "the stupefying spectacular, the awe inspiring".
From BBC • May 6, 2023
“It’s funny to take something which should be awe inspiring and serious and grandiose, and doodling bums in the corner of it,” Brooker said.
From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2023
From the outside, the palace’s destruction was almost awe inspiring.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
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.
