nightmarish

[nahyt-mair-ish]

adjective

1. resembling a nightmare, especially in being terrifying, exasperating, or the like.

   his nightmarish experience in a concentration camp.

Other Word Forms

• nightmarishly adverb
• nightmarishness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of nightmarish¹

First recorded in 1825–35; nightmare + -ish ¹

Example Sentences

Painting a nightmarish vision of what he claimed life would be like under a Farage government, he sought to portray the Lib Dems as the guardians of British values of "tolerance, decency, and respect".

From BBC

As often happens in a storm, almost everyone on the summit that day scrambled for the cables at once, creating a nightmarish traffic jam.

From Los Angeles Times

Brooker said he sees “Common People” as a companion piece to the second “Black Mirror” episode, “Fifteen Million Merits,” which he describes as a “nightmarish cartoon version of capitalism.”

From Los Angeles Times

Scott Cummings: Got off to a nightmarish start when failing to deal with restarts against the Western Force.

From BBC

Hwang loudly calls out the flaw of democracy that allows the barest of majorities to subject all to nightmarish policies — even more nightmarish for those who voted against them.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• awful 
• chilling 
• disquieting 
• dreadful 
• eerie 
• ghastly 
• grim 
• grisly 
• hair-raising 
• hellish 
• horrible 
• horrid 
• horrifying 
• macabre 
• scary 
• spooky 
• terrible 
• terrifying 
• traumatic