MEANING
Extremely bad or unpleasant, often so severe that it provokes horror or revulsion.
Use it for
Use for extreme unpleasantness, injury, smell, or ordeal.Escalate the reader’s sense of a condition or event as exceptionally bad.
Words that belong together
- horrendous wound
- horrendous odor
- horrendous ordeal
On the page
The horrendous wound was hidden beneath a neat, buttoned sleeve.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Word forms
- Base
- horrendous
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Usage notes
Horrendous can describe ordinary badness as hyperbole, but in serious scenes it conveys exceptional severity.
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