horrendous
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does horrendous mean? Horrendous is popularly used to mean extremely bad—awful, dreadful, or horrible. It can also mean literally causing horror—horrifying or horrific, as in horrendous violence. Example: If you’re wondering what cake tastes like when you accidentally use salt instead of sugar, it’s horrendous—completely disgusting and inedible.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of horrendous
1650–60; < Latin horrendus dreadful, to be feared (gerund of horrēre to bristle, shudder), equivalent to horr- (akin to hirsute ) + -endus gerund suffix
Explanation
Bad luck, an injury, a mistake, an unfortunate outfit, or a crime — anything can be called horrendous if it causes such dread or fear that you can barely even think about it. If you’ve ever encountered something horrendous, you won’t be surprised to learn that the word traces back to the Latin word horrere, meaning "to bristle with fear, shudder." That’s a good way to think about horrendous things — they cause you to shudder. You can use the word to describe any type of thing — people, ideas, actions, and so on — but save it for those things that are not merely bad but instead are truly horrifying.
Vocabulary lists containing horrendous
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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.
"Eating an ice cream because it's horrible, it feels catastrophic. I don't know what temperature we're at, but it feels horrendous... and I'm from Mexico," she told AFP.
From Barron's • Jun. 23, 2026
"By offering two doses of the jabs ahead of the academic year, we will help reduce the risk of serious illness and larger outbreaks of this horrendous disease."
From BBC • Jun. 11, 2026
JG: What’s a team that got a huge break with its draw—and what’s a team that got a horrendous draw?
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026
“He’s sitting on a volcano of emotions that he hasn’t dealt with. He does some pretty horrendous things, but I think people softened up to Morrow because they saw that human side.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 2, 2026
I yelled, flapping my arms, but the horrendous thing quivered with rage.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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.
