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  1. terrific love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Very good or fine; splendid: a terrific tennis player.
  2. adj. Awesome; astounding: drove at a terrific rate of speed.
  3. adj. Causing terror or great fear; terrifying: a terrific wail.
  4. adj. Very bad or unpleasant; frightful: a terrific headache.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Causing terror; fitted to excite great fear or dread; dreadful: as, a terrific storm.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. colloquial Frighteningly good.
  2. adj. colloquial Astounding or awesome.
  3. adj. Terrifying; causing terror
  4. adj. Frightful or very unpleasant.
  5. adj. colloquial Extraordinarily great or intense.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Causing terror; adapted to excite great fear or dread; terrible.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. extraordinarily good or great ; used especially as intensifiers
  2. adj. causing extreme terror
  3. adj. very great or intense

Etymologies

  1. From Latin terrificus ("causing terror"), from terrere ("to frighten, terrify") + -ficus, from facere ("to make"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin terrificus : terrēre, to frighten + -ficus, -fic. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “He didn't say whether he'll present his candidacy for the role, which he called "terrific.”

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News

  • “Hall's slicked-back hair and long beard were a turnoff for Tausch, added to what she calls terrific arrogance: "He was pretentious and always making pronunciamentos," she says.”

    Latest Articles

  • “A delighted Commissioner David Stern pronounced the NBA product was in "terrific" shape.”

    Record 100,000-plus crowd takes in All-Star Game in Dallas

  • “Want a crash course in terrific storytelling and killer dialogue?”

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Lessons from the screenwriters

  • “Really terrific from a humanitarian standpoint, and really great for the rule of law.”

    Matthew Yglesias » The Conservative Immigration Split

  • “Lodwick, Demong, normal hill silver medalist Johnny Spillane and Brett Camerota took silver on Tuesday, putting themselves in terrific position with strong ski jumps in the morning and battling through a tough 4x5-kilometer relay as snow fell in Whistler Olympic Park.”

    U.S. men's team pockets first medal in Nordic combined

  • “For now, let's just be happy that a show many had left for dead has rallied, wrapping up a terrific season in terrific fashion.”

    Season finale frenzy: '24'

  • “My wife is in terrific shape (if you're in or near NYC, go watch the Marathon this weekend and cheer her and her 30,000 closest friends on!) and I think we're both dressing better than we ever have.”

    In Defense of Marriage - Anil Dash

  • “Leon Washington returned Steve Weatherford's punt 37 yards - and even dragged the punter on his back for a few of those yards - to put the Jets in terrific field position at the Chiefs 46.”

    USATODAY.com

  • “All I can say is that I am in terrific company, sharing the same fate as Lester Holt, Carol Marin and Bill Kurtis.”

    Archive 2008-01-01

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synonyms (4)

Words with the same meaning

  1. terrible
  1. alarming
  1. horrific
  1. brilliant

equivalents (3)

Other words for ‘terrific’

  1. extraordinary
  1. alarming
  1. intense

same context (9)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. tremendous
  1. furious
  1. incredible
  1. terrify
  1. prodigious
  1. devastate
  1. ferocious
  1. horrid
  1. endless

rhymes (12)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Pacific
  2. hieroglyphic
  1. honorific
  2. horrific
  1. nonspecific
  2. pacific
  1. prolific
  2. pseudoscientific
  1. scientific
  2. specific
  1. transpacific
  2. unscientific

reverse dictionary (16)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. dread
  2. Gorgon
  3. gorgonian
  1. terrific
  2. pandemonium
  3. neat
  1. terrifical
  2. terrifically
  3. unearthly
  1. devil
  2. dire
  3. dreadful
  1. fic
  2. frightful
  3. terrible
  1. tremendous

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. auto-antonym

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tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘terrific’

  1. good

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Lists

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Comments

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  • whichbe A contranym: it means both "inducing terror" and fantastic or amazing. May 14, 2008

  • frindley "But, Charlotte," said Wilbur, "I'm not terrific."
    "That doesn't make a particle of difference," replied Charlotte. "Not a particle. People believe almost anything they see in print."
    –Charlotte's Web (E.B. White) Apr 20, 2008

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‘terrific’ has been looked up 2228 times, loved by 1 person, added to 20 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.