grotesque

[groh-tesk]

adjective

1. odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre.

   Synonyms: wild, antic, weird, deformed, distorted

2. fantastic in the shaping and combination of forms, as in decorative work combining incongruous human and animal figures with scrolls, foliage, etc.

noun

1. any grotesque object, design, person, or thing.

grotesque

/ ɡrəʊˈtɛsk /

adjective

1. strangely or fantastically distorted; bizarre

   a grotesque reflection in the mirror

2. of or characteristic of the grotesque in art

3. absurdly incongruous; in a ludicrous context

   a grotesque turn of phrase

noun

1. a 16th-century decorative style in which parts of human, animal, and plant forms are distorted and mixed

2. a decorative device, as in painting or sculpture, in this style

3. printing the family of 19th-century sans serif display types

4. any grotesque person or thing

Other Word Forms

• grotesquely adverb
• grotesqueness noun
• ungrotesque adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of grotesque¹

First recorded in 1555–65; from French, from Italian grottesca (from pittura grottesca, opera grottesca “grotesque painting, decoration” such as was apparently found in excavated buildings), the feminine of grottesco “grotesque, uncouth,” derivative of grotta “cave.” See grotto, -esque

Word History and Origins

Origin of grotesque¹

C16: from French, from Old Italian ( pittura ) grottesca cave painting, from grottesco of a cave, from grotta cave; see _grotto

Synonym Study

See bizarre.

Example Sentences

With the genre claiming 17% of the domestic box office for 2025, production studios are eager to feed our seemingly bottomless appetite for cinematic grotesques, especially those based on true stories.

Read more on Salon

Is it a grotesque spectacle or pushing the boundaries of human achievement?

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But his chronicle of that heist expands into a saga of psychological suspense spanning nearly two decades and following half a dozen characters whose lives are twisted into grotesque shapes by their addictive compulsions.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Keck’s horizontal equestrian sculpture, which intimates occupation of the land, became Walker’s vertical, a grotesque standing humanoid, disemboweled.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But the most grotesque of U.S. interference in the region was the government’s complicity in the so-called “dirty wars” of Argentina and Chile in the 1970s.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• absurd 
• bizarre 
• eerie 
• fanciful 
• fantastic 
• ludicrous 
• monstrous 
• odd 
• outlandish 
• preposterous 
• ridiculous 
• strange 
• surrealistic 
• whimsical