gruesome
Americanadjective
-
causing great horror; horribly repugnant; grisly.
the site of a gruesome murder.
-
full of or causing problems; distressing.
a gruesome day at the office.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gruesome
1560–70; obsolete grue to shudder (cognate with German grauen, Dutch gruwen ) + -some 1
Explanation
Gothic novels, horror movies, and crime dramas don't shy away from showing gruesome scenes of death, pictures that inspire fright and repulsion. Synonyms include "ghastly," "grisly," "loathsome," and "macabre." Once upon a time, English contained a variety of words related to gruesome. The verb grue meant "to shudder," just as its Middle Dutch source gruwen did. Grueful and grueing also conveyed the sense of shivering with horror and disgust. All of these variations have been lost leaving us only with gruesome. Texting while driving has caused many gruesome accidents that you might not want to hear the gruesome details of. Although if you like gruesome movies, you might want to know.
Vocabulary lists containing gruesome
The Devil's Arithmetic
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A Long Way Gone
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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.
High-scoring winger Kevin Fiala, meanwhile, will miss the first couple of months, at least, after experiencing a setback in his return from a gruesome leg injury sustained at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
Memes, some of them gruesome and offensive, began spreading rapidly.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
The United States rarely executes women, no matter how gruesome their crimes.
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
Khumalo said his family was grappling with the loss, which had taken "two generations from them" in one gruesome incident.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
In the school bus from Tembisa, reading the gruesome accounts of what took place in Soweto in the late afternoon edition of the World, I felt hate and anger well up inside me.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
