enormity
Americannoun
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enormities
plural
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outrageous or heinous character; atrociousness.
the enormity of war crimes.
- Synonyms:
- heinousness, monstrousness
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something outrageous or heinous, as an offense.
The bombing of the defenseless population was an enormity beyond belief.
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greatness of size, scope, extent, or influence; immensity.
The enormity of such an act of generosity is staggering.
noun
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the quality or character of being outrageous; extreme wickedness
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an act of great wickedness; atrocity
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informal vastness of size or extent
Usage
In modern English, it is common to talk about the enormity of something such as a task or a problem, but one should not talk about the enormity of an object or area: distribution is a problem because of India's enormous size (not India's enormity )
Commonly Confused
Enormity has been in frequent and continuous use in the sense “immensity” since the 18th century: The enormity of the task was overwhelming. Some hold that enormousness is the correct word in that sense and that enormity can only mean “outrageousness” or “atrociousness”: The enormity of his offenses appalled the public. Enormity occurs regularly in edited writing with the meanings both of great size and of outrageous or horrifying character, behavior, etc. Many people, however, continue to regard enormity in the sense of great size as nonstandard.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of enormity
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English enormite, from Middle French, from Latin ēnormitās; see enorm, -ty 2
Explanation
An enormity is something extreme or huge, almost beyond comprehension. If you call having to paint the house all by yourself an enormity, your friends might take pity on you and show up with brushes and rollers. Something that's enormous can be good — a huge paycheck! — or bad, such as a tumor. But when it comes to enormity, some word lovers are up in arms. The word originally meant "a crime," so some people think it should only be used to describe wickedness or lack of morals. Others can't resist the word's similarity to enormous and apply it to anything vast, positive or negative.
Vocabulary lists containing enormity
Things Fall Apart
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Every Day
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"Why I Wrote The Crucible"
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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.
See Examples For:
Ian Tostenson, head of the British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association, described being in a host city as a crash course in "the enormity of the World Cup".
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Part of the problem was the sheer enormity of the initial outbreak, which quickly strained available stocks of tests, medications, and PPE, not to mention hospital beds and healthcare workers’ time.
From Slate ● Jun. 9, 2026
“I don’t know if the enormity of this has sunk in yet,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2026
But it was a chance to capture the imaginations of new generations of future space explorers, while also calling back to the one-giant-step-for-mankind sense of awed enormity that characterized the 20th-century Space Race.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026
My furry friend didn’t seem to appreciate the enormity of what was happening inside the shed.
From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan
In recent years, he has worked on an increasingly vast scale, as he searches for the most minimal means to convey nature’s immersive enormities: dark forests, distant escarpments, moonlight on water, wintry fields.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 29, 2022
But, in a novel as obsessed with particulars as this one is, the effect is not to measure one trauma against another so much as to hold the enormities aloft, side by side and distinct.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 26, 2018
Such musings worried lawyers and civil-liberties campaigners, who are accustomed to governments reacting to enormities with draconian new laws.
From Economist ● Aug. 28, 2014
Then, as its enormities went on getting more and more enormous in every line, the book seemed something titanic, gigantic, awe-inspiring.
From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2013
Fear at the enormities of the forbidden kept her desires delicate, wire and bone.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
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.
