awesome
Americanadjective
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causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear.
an awesome sight.
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exhibiting or marked by awe; showing reverence, admiration, or fear.
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Slang. very impressive.
That new white convertible is totally awesome.
adjective
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inspiring or displaying awe
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slang excellent or outstanding
Commonly Confused
See awful.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of awesome
Explanation
An awesome something or someone is amazing, breathtaking, or overwhelming. Like traveling the globe in a hot air balloon or visiting the Taj Mahal. Or, if you're 7, hearing someone burp the alphabet. Awesome popped on the scene around 1600, probably in a church. It first meant “profoundly reverential,” but morphed later into an adjective meaning “inspiring awe.” Flash forward to the 20th century, when awesome transformed once again — this time into an everyday word for "impressive." These days it's synonymous with "outstanding" and "totally cool."
Vocabulary lists containing awesome
Beowulf vocabulary
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myPerspectives 9.5
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Wow! Synonyms for "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.
"So, very excited, very pleased and it's not often you achieve a lap like today and it's a pretty awesome feeling when you do."
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
Lilith Fair was the awesome thing to do with your friends; it’s what everybody was talking about back then.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
“What’s awesome about that is that it’s not that rare” for artists to be outspoken on these issues now, Hanna said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
As the network’s famed college basketball commentator Dick Vitale would say, “That’s awesome, baby!”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
“Nothing special really. Just what they teach us at Riverview Middle School. Did I mention how awesome it is?”
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
