Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Causing great fear or alarm; dreadful: a terrible bolt of lightning; a terrible curse.
- adj. Extremely formidable: terrible responsibilities.
- adj. Extreme in extent or degree; intense: "the life for which he had paid so terrible a price” ( Leslie Fiedler).
- adj. Unpleasant; disagreeable: had a terrible time at the party; terrible food.
- adj. Very bad: a terrible actor.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- That excites or is fitted to excite terror, fear, awe, or dread; awful; dreadful; formidable.
- Excessive; tremendous; severe; great: chiefly used colloquially: as, a terrible bore.
- Synonyms Terrific, fearful, frightful, horrible, shocking, dire.
Wiktionary
- adj. Dreadful; causing alarm and fear.
- adj. formidable, powerful.
- adj. Intense; extreme in degree or extent.
- adj. Unpleasant; disagreeable.
- adj. Very bad; lousy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Adapted or likely to excite terror, awe, or dread; dreadful; formidable.
- adj. colloq. Excessive; extreme; severe.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality
- adj. extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact
- adj. causing fear or dread or terror
- adj. exceptionally bad or displeasing
Etymologies
- From French, from Latin terribilis ("frightful"), from terrere ("to frighten"). Compare terror, deter. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin terribilis, from terrēre, to frighten. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It would be a terrible thing, perfectly _terrible_, to have him marry a girl who is not a lady, nor even an educated woman. ”
“Dickey: When we were filming, she was 2, and whoever came up with the term "terrible twos" knew what they were talking about.”
“That outside pressure only seems to embolden the president, who used his inaugural address to denounce what he calls terrible cases of foreign interference that threaten Ivory Coast's sovereignty.”
Voice of America: Rival Presidential Candidates Take Dueling Oaths of Office in Ivory Coast
“Studio head Harvey Weinstein is also coming to Polanski's defense, he described as -- what he described as a terrible situation.”
“NGUYEN: Now, both Republican and Democratic election officials are apologizing for what they call a terrible mistake.”
“Both Republican and Democratic election officials are apologizing for what they call a terrible mistake.”
“Johnny later apologized to the girls for having been what he called a terrible father.”
“JENSEN: The delay in February on arriving in Sydney was caused by what he called a terrible mistake.”
“And it was what I refer to as a terrible casualness about the planning of a lot of the '28 campaign, in my opinion.”
“There did not appear to be any attempt to curb what they termed the terrible cycle of violence that had become a way of life in”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘terrible’.
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3027 more... -
The Most Beautiful Words in the Engli...
mellifluous, obscure, star-crossed, undulating, solstice, messiah, audacious, solace, twilight, wanderlust, lovelorn, byzantine and 219 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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Prosie: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ad...
(Given Saturday, March 4, 1865, Washington, D.C.)
Fellow-Countrymen:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended a...with all nations, among ourselves, a just and lastin..., cherish, achieve, to do all, for his widow and..., to care for him w..., to bind up the na..., let us strive on ..., with firmness in ..., with charity for all and 169 more...
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Tunie: Word Disassociation
(I'm fairly sure that I'm subverting the whole concept of the Tunie by listing this song. Subversion! Yes! HA HA HA HA! Mine is an evil laugh!!!)
Word Disassociation
antidisestablishm..., quickly, ruby, bionic, about, crouch, a cappella, imposter, flames, distraction, murderous, over and 181 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Inner B
Words with the letter b within the word, not just as the initial or last letter.
remember, maybe, able, unable, nimble, cable, reusable, thimble, cymbal, capable, tremble, enable and 143 more...
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The "dark" things
grave, dead, death, die, died, dies, murder, murdered, murderer, murders, murdering, murderous and 115 more...
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Scriptie: The Fellowship of the Ring
the world is changed, much that once wa..., great rings, immortal, dwarf lords, miners, craftsmen, three, seven, nine, deceived, dark lord and 216 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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Ships
All of which are mentioned in O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels, someplace or other. Most are British navy ships, some are French navy, and others aren't either one.
See also the list Sh...franklin, surprise, agamemnon, vanguard, truelove, minerva, diane, victory, sophie, cacafuego, euryalus, alastor and 382 more...
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Setting the Scene: Dark and Dreary
Words that lend to the dark and dreary atmosphere of gothic literature.
dark, dreary, shroud, shrouded, veiled, skeleton, skeletal, dead, death, murky, gloomy, lugubrious and 274 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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Aeonn's Words
discombobulation, dank, crass, abolishment, quite, ubiquitous, crank, catapult, sponge, click, queer, irish and 124 more...
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"A List of His MAJESTY's Ships and Ve...
Boston: Re-Printed and Sold at J. Draper's Printing-Office in Newbury-Street. (Price Sixteen Pence single.)
See the companion list, A LIST of the Men of War the French have left," 174...apollo, deptford, portsmouth, princess royal, scarborough, sutherland, william and mary, mary, fubbs, dublin, charlotte, catherine and 302 more...
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RoughOctober's list
nature, steampunk, weather, colors, and other assorted (sometimes moody) words
beetle, barn, beacon, water, engine, typhoon, doldrums, leaves, mica, steam, bowgrace, leaf and 121 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for terrible.
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