Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Upsetting or horrifying by association with death or injury; gruesome: synonym: ghastly.
- adjective Constituting or including a representation of death.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective portraying human injury or death in a way so as to inspiring shock or horror; gruesome; ghastly.
- adjective Pertaining to or portraying the grim aspects of death, or the allegorical dance of death.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Representing orpersonifying death . - adjective
Obsessed with death or thegruesome . - adjective
Ghastly ,shocking ,terrifying .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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It's difficult to describe the illustrations of Edward Gorey without using the word "macabre."
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There is a certain macabre sense of voyeurism throughout The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, partly because the movie lays bare the inner workings of the imagination, but largely due to the fact that this film serves as the final film from Heath Ledger.
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There is a certain macabre humour about it though.
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I didn't pursue it with a Goth kid's reverence (and besides, anyone who tries to apply here who gives the boss a feeling that they like the Cure and use the word macabre more often than the next guy is swiftly shown the door), but with a sense of irony, or at least what my eighteen year old brain thought was a sense of irony.
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I didn't pursue it with a Goth kid's reverence (and besides, anyone who tries to apply here who gives the boss a feeling that they like the Cure and use the word macabre more often than the next guy is swiftly shown the door), but with a sense of irony, or at least what my eighteen year old brain thought was a sense of irony.
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My first thought when I saw the babies and children was "how macabre is this?"
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Look at it from a purely aesthetic standpoint and it may, have a certain macabre appeal.
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Look at it from a purely aesthetic standpoint and it may, have a certain macabre appeal.
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Especially one guy, who's subjected to ..., well, I'm not even going to tell you except to say that the word macabre applies.
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"She looked at me and looked away," Stumpo told NEWSWEEK, as he recalled the macabre scene in an exclusive interview.
herotuesday commented on the word macabre
I'm a big fan of it's when pronounced "muh-cawb" vs. "mu-ca-bruh".
The implied "re" on the end really sings to me.
September 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word macabre
It's one of those words I never say aloud. But I always assumed it was pronounced "MAC uh bree." Hmm, maybe I shouldn't be admitting that here. ;-)
September 22, 2007
reesetee commented on the word macabre
We won't tell anyone. ;-)
September 23, 2007
jenbug commented on the word macabre
Somehow it sounds more enigmatic to pronounce it "-cawb."
November 22, 2007
bilby commented on the word macabre
Sounds like mu(h)-carb in Australia.
November 22, 2007
seaghost commented on the word macabre
I can't think of many words that are as often mispronounced as this one.
August 4, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word macabre
The OED gives the two pronunciations /məˈkɑːbrə/ and /məˈkɑːb/ in that order for BrE, and the AmE equivalents in the same order. This seems to me to miss the natural third possibility, /məˈkɑːbə/, but I assume they've done some sort of quantitative research and found that few people pronounce it that way. I doubt that many people 'mispronounce' it.
August 4, 2008
wordnerd16 commented on the word macabre
Shouldn't it be pronounced 'mac-kuh-ber' , you know, like how sabre is said as ' say-ber'?
June 1, 2012
ruzuzu commented on the word macabre
That etymology is fascinating.
June 1, 2012
rolig commented on the word macabre
Were the Maccabees especially macabre?
June 2, 2012