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.
"They were monsters...their questions were horrendous," he said.
From BBC
He knew very little about the realm of Pain, except that it was full of the most horrendous spirits.
From Literature
"I hate school holidays. I hate the half-term. I hate Christmas. I dread the phone ringing, because the bites do increase during the holiday period and half-term and it's just horrendous."
From BBC
"Things are still horrendous for me, her first anniversary just passed and that was really hard, I can't come to terms with the fact she's not coming home," she said.
From BBC
A Home Office spokesperson said the inquiry has been established "to get the answers that victims and survivors of these horrendous crimes deserve".
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.
