grotesqueness.

A quality of being distorted, unnatural, or bizarre in a way that can disturb or mix horror with absurdity.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• grotesqueness of the figure
• comic grotesqueness

On the page

The grotesqueness of the masks made laughter and fear difficult to separate.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror / gothic. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.