morbid

[mawr-bid]

adjective

1. suggesting an unhealthy mental state or attitude; unwholesomely gloomy, sensitive, extreme, etc..

   a morbid interest in death.

   Antonyms: cheerful

2. affected by, caused by, causing, or characteristic of disease.

   Synonyms: sickly, sick, unhealthy, unhealthy, diseased, unwholesome
   Antonyms: healthy

3. pertaining to diseased parts.

   morbid anatomy.

4. gruesome; grisly.

morbid

/ ˈmɔːbɪd /

adjective

1. having an unusual interest in death or unpleasant events

2. gruesome

3. relating to or characterized by disease; pathologic

   a morbid growth

Other Word Forms

• morbidly adverb
• morbidness noun
• premorbid adjective
• premorbidly adverb
• premorbidness noun
• unmorbid adjective
• unmorbidly adverb
• unmorbidness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of morbid¹

First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin morbidus “sickly,” from morb(us) “disease, sickness” + -idus -id ⁴

Word History and Origins

Origin of morbid¹

C17: from Latin morbidus sickly, from morbus illness

Example Sentences

Instead, the documentary is a star-studded, rose-colored recollection of better days, a look back at an era that didn’t seem so fraught with deception and morbid artificiality.

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“There aren’t many of us, for obvious morbid reasons,” she noted.

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What George was experiencing and doing wasn’t morbid, or weird, or pathological, it was . . . good.

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Nearby, a gorgeous photograph of a single gnarled tree amid green rolling hills becomes quietly apocalyptic, as if the voluptuous earth is preparing to shake off morbid memories.

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Within this space between, Gramsci argued, “morbid phenomena of the most varied kind come to pass.”

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Related Words

• ghastly 
• ghoulish 
• grim 
• gruesome 
• macabre 
• melancholy 
• pessimistic 
• unnatural