Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness or outrageousness.
- n. A monstrous offense or evil; an outrage.
- n. Usage Problem Great size; immensity: "Beyond that, [Russia's] sheer enormity offered a defense against invaders that no European nation enjoyed” ( W. Bruce Lincoln).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state or quality of being enormous, immoderate, or extreme; atrociousness; vastness: in a bad sense: as, the enormity of his offense.
- n. Enormousness; immensity: without derogatory implication.
- n. That which surpasses endurable limits, or is immoderate, extreme, or outrageous; a very grave offense against order, right, or decency; atrocious crime; an atrocity.
- n. Synonyms and Enormity, Enormousness. Enormousness is strictly limited to vastness in size; enormity, to vastness in atrocity, baseness, etc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state or quality of exceeding a measure or rule, or of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous.
- n. That which is enormous; especially, an exceeding offense against order, right, or decency; an atrocious crime; flagitious villainy; an atrocity.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the quality of being outrageous
- n. an act of extreme wickedness
- n. the quality of extreme wickedness
- n. vastness of size or extent
Etymologies
- From Middle French énormité, from Latin ēnormitātem, from ēnormis. (Wiktionary)
- French énormité, from Old French, from Latin ēnormitās, from ēnormis, unusual, enormous; see enormous. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He thanks many members of his campaign, along with his enormous army of volunteers, and he warns supporters about what he calls the enormity of the tasks at hand that now face the U.S.”
“Finally, and for the avoidance of doubt, the man who "misspoke" the word enormity is to be referred to as President-Elect Obama until his inauguration on 20 January.”
“But the greatest number of letters I've received, by far, have been about my seemingly criminal use of the word enormity to mean 'enormous'.”
“Sullivan gets bonus points for employing the phrase "mindless Rovianism" and for using the word enormity properly.”
“Slavery I must condemn with my whole soul; but here I need only borrow the language of slaveholders; nor would it accord with my habits or my sense of justice to exhibit them as the impersonation of the institution -- Jefferson calls it the "enormity" -- which they cherish.”
American Eloquence, Volume 2 Studies In American Political History (1896)
“Such is commonly the fate of temporary wit, levelled at some prevailing enormity, which is not of a general nature, but only subsists for a while.”
“The former judge at India's top court, who was given the task on Dec. 9 and was to present a report within four weeks, said the "enormity" of the work led to the delay.”
The Wall Street Journal: Ex-Judge Submits Report on India Telecom Allotment
“Showing others the weak points of Muslims" is a serious sin, an "enormity" according to the Sunni classic manual of Islamic Sacred Law, entitled Reliance of the Traveler.”
The Huffington Post: Terry Kelhawk: What Underlies Reactions When Islam Is Insulted?
“The only thing that bugged me was his use of "enormity" for "immensity.”
President-Elect Barack Obama's First Press Conference: Promises To "Act Swiftly" On Economy
“I think he did (he also misused the word "enormity," which may be of interest to my fellow grammar freaks.)”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘enormity’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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EN - newSPEAK
Buzzwords of our time
actionable, administrivia, advermation, agreeance, backbone provider, back-sourcing, baked in, bandwidth, barn raising, Barneyware, belly-buttons, Below Zeros and 1076 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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select words
luminous, radiant, malicious, zeal, ojalá, voluptuary, rubbish, purlicue, consarnit, upstart, precis, robinsonade and 66 more...
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[Open] Frequently confused and misused
Words that are often used to mean something other than what they mean to lexicographers.
apprehensible, immanent, eminent, seamen, venal, venial, brassiere, brassier, brasserie, brazier, brasier, elegy and 38 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1834 more...
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logos's list
A poor pathetic thing, but mine own.
invidious, lugubriousness, vilify, noisome, synastry, front and center, declension, conjugation, regnal, diphthong, circumlocution, bishopric and 141 more...
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marginalia
exuberance, potsherds, earthbound, marcher, märchen, pastiche, transliterated, crocodile, oxbridge, jejune, publican, antithesis and 143 more...
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jaradgiese's Words
paronomasia, ostensible, insouciant, sobriquet, burlesque, insalubrious, apotheosis, hyperbole, connubial, felicity, florid, conurbation and 642 more...
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Magoosh GRE
its a list of words borrowed from Magoosh GRE blog ,an indispensable resource for GRE test takers.
inimitable, exiguity, myriad, cornucopia, surfeit, glut, deluge, opaque, pellucid, grandiloquent, turgid, gadfly and 106 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for enormity.
rolig I fear the battle to keep people from using "enormity" to mean (as one would logically expect) "the state of being enormous" is lost. That is an enormity we will just have to learn to live with. Nov 8, 2008
asativum Barack Obama is an eloquent speaker, and no doubt politicians will study his cadence and delivery for years to come. But he misues enormity. See examples here. Nov 8, 2008
iangilman As seen in a Cracked's 9 Words That Don't Mean What You Think. Nov 26, 2007
sera 1. The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness or outrageousness.
2. A monstrous offense or evil; an outrage.
USAGE NOTE (from the Free Dictionary):
"Enormity is frequently used to refer simply to the property of being great in size or extent, but many would prefer that enormousness (or a synonym such as immensity) be used for this general sense and that enormity be limited to situations that demand a negative moral judgment, as in Not until the war ended and journalists were able to enter Cambodia did the world really become aware of the enormity of Pol Pot's oppression. Fifty-nine percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of enormity as a synonym for immensity in the sentence At that point the engineers sat down to design an entirely new viaduct, apparently undaunted by the enormity of their task. This distinction between enormity and enormousness has not always existed historically, but nowadays many observe it. Writers who ignore the distinction, as in the enormity of the President's election victory or the enormity of her inheritance, may find that their words have cast unintended aspersions or evoked unexpected laughter."
Aug 13, 2007