noun
-
an outrageous or ugly person or thing; monster
-
the state or quality of being monstrous
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of monstrosity
1545–55; < Late Latin mōnstrōsitās, equivalent to Latin mōnstrōs ( us ) monstrous + -itās -ity
Explanation
A monstrosity is something so hideous that you can hardly stand to look at it, like a zombie or an ugly modern building. A monster can certainly be described as a monstrosity, but so can anything that is as frightening or disgusting as a monster. A dictator's cruel regime is a monstrosity, and so is a three-headed fish. The word comes from the Latin word for monster, monstrum, with a root, monere, that means "warn," from the tradition of interpreting monstrous, deformed animals as omens — or warnings — of bad luck.
Vocabulary lists containing monstrosity
The Pigman
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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
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Butterfly Yellow
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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.
See Examples For:
He’s just some mud-brown monstrosity roaming the Vale of Arryn and treating livestock like campfire marshmallows.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
Wilmot Fraser, the sole Black member of the city history commission, called the monument a monstrosity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
Petro earlier called the threat of a 100 percent tariff "a monstrosity" and threatened to withdraw Colombia from the Andean Community of Nations, a trade bloc which also includes Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
From Barron's ● Apr. 9, 2026
And so was the Kennedy Center in its monstrosity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2026
I shouted in a desperate attempt to distance myself from Katz’s monstrosity.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
These monstrosities will smother beaches and erase views of the sea, but they are not high enough to block another 2011-sized wave.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 22, 2024
A good first step is to simply name hulking SUVs and pickup trucks for what they are: monstrosities whose size is deadly, destructive, and, for almost everyone who has one, utterly unnecessary.
From Slate ● Dec. 17, 2023
It should not go unnoticed that the monstrosities that softened up the Baron are Laszlo's creations, achieved by merging Guillermo's DNA with that of a small petting zoo's worth of animals.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2023
In the case of Mr. Jon, the inseam of these monstrosities would be so substantial that they barely qualified as shorts to the rational observer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2023
“I reckon everyone has those monstrosities in the city, ey?”
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
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.
