Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The condition or quality of being heinous; odiousness; enormity: as, the heinousness of a vice or crime.

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

  • noun the quality of being shockingly cruel and inhumane.

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

  • noun The property of being heinous.

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

  • noun the quality of being shockingly cruel and inhumane

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The problem isn’t the Grahams, or the Sulzbergers, or even the Moon family (not to defend them, but their heinousness is just incidental).

    Matthew Yglesias » The Fate of American Democracy Hangs on the Continued Financial Viability of the Washington Post 2010

  • He had previously pointed out in express terms the heinousness of the crime, when he said that those who should eat unworthily would be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Now he alarms them, by denouncing punishment; for there are many that are not affected with the sin itself; unless they are struck down by the judgment of God.

    Green Baggins 2010

  • Instead of sending him, as it is customary to send culprits, in the boats to witness the execution of his shipmates, he ordered him into his cabin, and having represented in the mildest and most feeling terms the heinousness of the crime which he was known to have committed, he assured him that it was his intention to spare him the anguish he must endure of beholding his late companions suffering the last penalty of the law for the very crime of which he had been guilty.

    Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Vol. I John Ross 1816

  • But if they ` re going to go after the death penalty here they ` ve got to show premeditation, deliberation and they ` ve got to show some kind of heinousness, something that justifies the most severe punishment that we know in American law.

    CNN Transcript Apr 14, 2009 2009

  • Perhaps because it’s assumed that they are mentally ill “fanatic” en masse, that being “a loner” isn’t part of their culture, and that individuality is not one of their strong points, the heinousness of the act is focused upon rather than the potentially damaged nature of the individual who acted.

    Tom Engelhardt: In the Crosshairs: Tucson-Kabul Tom Engelhardt 2011

  • Perhaps because it’s assumed that they are mentally ill “fanatic” en masse, that being “a loner” isn’t part of their culture, and that individuality is not one of their strong points, the heinousness of the act is focused upon rather than the potentially damaged nature of the individual who acted.

    Tom Engelhardt: In the Crosshairs: Tucson-Kabul Tom Engelhardt 2011

  • Since then the character has swung back to, then gone beyond, the heinousness of his original incarnation.

    Clown Prince of Crime Chip Kidd 2011

  • I wasted far too much time pounding on it, kicking it, cursing Raziel, since I knew he, not Sarah, was to blame for this particular heinousness.

    Raziel Kristine Douglas 2011

  • That employees of other school systems may also victimize children does not excuse or mitigate the heinousness of pedophilia, no matter who employs the kiddie-diddlers.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » District Attorney Suggests That It May Be a Crime for Teachers to Follow the New State Law Mandating Certain Forms of Sex Education 2010

  • Perhaps because it’s assumed that they are mentally ill “fanatic” en masse, that being “a loner” isn’t part of their culture, and that individuality is not one of their strong points, the heinousness of the act is focused upon rather than the potentially damaged nature of the individual who acted.

    Tom Engelhardt: In the Crosshairs: Tucson-Kabul Tom Engelhardt 2011

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