Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Resembling an abyss in depth; unfathomable.
  • adjective Very profound; limitless.
  • adjective Very bad.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to an abyss; bottomless; profound; fathomless; immeasurable.
  • Specifically Pertaining to great depths in the ocean: thus, species of plants found only at great depths are called abysmal species, and also abyssal (which see).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining to, or resembling, an abyss; bottomless; unending; profound.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective figuratively, colloquial Bottomless; extremely bad.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective resembling an abyss in depth; so deep as to be unmeasurable
  • adjective very great; limitless

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

abysm +‎ -al

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Examples

  • A University of Regina professor says the state of math education in schools can be traced to what he calls the "abysmal" training of university students studying to become teachers.

    CBC | Top Stories News 2011

  • Acker, Ripple-Carpenter and the former sheepherder are working to bring attention to what they call abysmal treatment of the sheepherders.

    Glenwood Springs Post Independent - Top Stories 2009

  • G.M.B. Akash takes photos of children who live and work in abysmal conditions in Bangladesh:

    Child Labour in Bangladesh The Nag 2009

  • At the same time, the American Left was in abysmal disarray.

    Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood 2007

  • In the 1930s people around him lived in abysmal poverty, most of them eating less than one rice - gruel meal a day.

    Innovation in Kingdom Business 2007

  • Wallace doesn't handle the ball well enough to turn it over much, but most people know that he can't hit treys and is abysmal from the stripe (42%) and not great from the floor (45%).

    USATODAY.com 2005

  • This doesn't go, of course, for the mass of the people, living in abysmal ignorance and grinding poverty, their comprehension barely extending to the frontier.

    Inside Spain Today 1946

  • Former franchisee Brumagin also is skeptical and says introducing somewhat fancier, higher-priced food could go the way of a healthy menu experiment in the mid-'90s that he called an "abysmal failure."

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2012

  • Some cleanup will probably take place tonight, my front hall and office are in abysmal condition just now because I’ve been lazy, lost some sleep, and been focused on other things.

    Friday the 13th...music and more... deep_bluze 2004

  • The water supply and sanitation situation around the world can only be described as abysmal.

    H. David Nahai: The Global Water Crisis H. David Nahai 2011

Comments

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  • To deep to be measured/ Sentence- That movie was an abysmal failure. (Newbury House Dictionary)

    September 25, 2010

  • Better vocabulary and good strategy helps in avoiding an absymal score in SAT.

    February 18, 2013

  • a gaufres et gouffres layout.

    February 18, 2013

  • "To begin with, if race categories were meant primarily to capture differences in genetics, they are doing an abysmal job."

    Source: What Both the Left and Right Get Wrong About Race

    January 22, 2018