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
- horrendously adverb
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
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.
Battered, bruised and well beaten, Smith had coughed up a horrendous blooper for Sale's sixth try, failing to gather a routine backfield ball to allow a chasing Raffi Quirke to dot down.
From BBC
In Miami’s case, it means that keeping Tagovailoa is horrendously expensive—but so is getting rid of him.
The Ministry of Justice described Kyle's death as "a horrendous crime" and said coroners were "independent judicial office holders" who "make decisions based on the circumstances of each case."
From BBC
He said some animals arrive in "horrendous situations" after being loaded into vans or cars loose or in homemade cages.
From BBC
"To be honest what Melanie and I went through was horrific", he said, describing his son's condition as "horrendous to watch".
From BBC
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.
