tremendous

[trih-men-duhs]

adjective

1. extraordinarily great in size, amount, or intensity.

   a tremendous ocean liner; tremendous talent.

2. extraordinary in excellence.

   a tremendous movie.

3. dreadful or awful, as in character or effect; exciting fear; frightening; terrifying.

tremendous

/ trɪˈmɛndəs /

adjective

1. vast; huge

2. informal,  very exciting or unusual

3. informal,  (intensifier)

   a tremendous help

4. archaic,  terrible or dreadful

Other Word Forms

• tremendously adverb
• tremendousness noun
• untremendous adjective
• untremendousness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of tremendous¹

First recorded in 1625–35; from Latin tremendus “dreadful, to be shaken by,” equivalent to trem(ere) “to shake, quake” + -endus gerund suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of tremendous¹

C17: from Latin tremendus terrible, literally: that is to be trembled at, from tremere to quake

Synonym Study

See huge.

Example Sentences

It was a tremendous outpouring of energy, for good or ill, that shattered all existing standards.

Read more on Salon

“What’s key is the tremendous preparedness efforts that have been ongoing many days in advance of the storm ... have helped mitigate impacts — preventing some reasonable worst-case impacts from coming to fruition.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“It recognizes the tremendous value of Disney’s programming and provides YouTube TV subscribers with more flexibility and choice.”

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To meet such a tremendous need, the companies will need to turn to the biggest funding markets.

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“AI is driving a tremendous amount of computing demand, and so it’s really ramping up to meet that increasing demand,” Dickerson said Thursday.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• amazing 
• astounding 
• awesome 
• colossal 
• dreadful 
• enormous 
• excellent 
• exceptional 
• extraordinary 
• fabulous 
• fantastic 
• formidable 
• great 
• immense 
• incredible 
• marvelous 
• massive 
• monumental 
• prodigious 
• terrible