hideous
Americanadjective
-
horrible or frightful to the senses; repulsive; very ugly.
a hideous monster.
- Antonyms:
- attractive, pleasing
-
shocking or revolting to the moral sense.
a hideous crime.
-
distressing; appalling.
the hideous expense of moving one's home to another city.
adjective
-
extremely ugly; repulsive
a hideous person
-
terrifying and horrific
Other Word Forms
- hideosity noun
- hideously adverb
- hideousness noun
- unhideous adjective
- unhideously adverb
- unhideousness noun
Etymology
Origin of hideous
1275–1325; Middle English hidous < Old French hisdos, equivalent to hisde horror, fright (perhaps < Old High German *egisida, akin to egisôn, agison to frighten) + -os -ous; suffix later assimilated to -eous
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.
No Triple Crown, no hope of winning the Six Nations title, no end to their hideous run of defeats against Ireland - now standing at 12 and with no discernible sign of it stopping there.
From BBC • Mar. 14, 2026
He walked seven batters every nine innings, which is hideous.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2026
Rathnayake charged him a ball later and was caught skying a hideous swipe.
From BBC • Feb. 22, 2026
The accompanying photo portraits are mostly hideous, in Ms. Wiles’s case also ill-mannered and unkind.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2025
“The whole period was one prolonged, hideous nightmare.”
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
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.
