atrocious
Syllables: a·tro·ciousUK/əˈtɹəʊ.ʃəs/US/əˈtɹoʊ.ʃəs/
atrocious adjective: frightful, evil, cruel, or monstrous.
Adjective
atrocious (comparative more atrocious, superlative most atrocious)
- Frightful, evil, cruel, or monstrous.
- Prisons have been the sites of atrocious mistreatment of prisoners.
- Offensive or heinous.
- I had resolved in my own mind, that to create another like the fiend I had first made would be an act of the basest and most atrocious selfishness; and I banished from my mind every thought that could lead to a different conclusion.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter III, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding...
- Very bad; abominable, disgusting.
- Their taste in clothes is just atrocious.
- Others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued; while standing out of harm's way, the valiant captain danced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Town-Ho’s Story. (As Told at the Golden Inn.)”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley...
atrocious meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam
atrocious in Tamil
- மிகக் கொடிய, அடாத
atrocious in Marathi
- atrocious, vicious
- भयानक bhayānak
atrocious in Bengali
- অত্যন্ত নিষ্ঠুর, জঘন্য, অত্যন্ত খারাপ মানের
atrocious in Malayalam
- അതിക്രൂരമായ, മോശമായ
More languagesFewer languages
- atrocious in Kannada
- ಘೋರ, ಭಯಂಕರ, ಅಮಾನವೀಯ, ಹೇಯ
- atrocious in Gujarati
- અત્યાચારી
Examples of atrocious in a sentence
- The restaurant's dosas were truly atrocious, so I stopped going there.
- That blurbable sentence would mean more if the current state of educational software weren’t so atrocious.
- The weather was atrocious, with bitterly cold wind and cutting sleet—rather appropriate, considering Aunt Fonteyn's temperament.
Synonyms of atrocious
Antonyms
Forms of atrocious
| comparative | more atrocious |
|---|---|
| superlative | most atrocious |
Origin of atrocious
From Latin atrōx (“cruel, fierce, frightful”) + -ious.
Words formed from atrocious
Words that rhyme with atrocious
Questions about atrocious
- What does atrocious mean?
- Atrocious means frightful, evil, cruel, or monstrous.
- What is atrocious in Tamil?
- Atrocious in Tamil is மிகக் கொடிய, அடாத. See Atrocious meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is atrocious?
- Atrocious is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce atrocious?
- Atrocious is pronounced /əˈtɹəʊ.ʃəs/ (UK).
Words near atrocious in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: atrocious (page history and authors); atrocious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); भयानक (Marathi) (page history and authors); atrocious (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); atrocious (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); atrocious (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); atrocious (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-atrocious.ogg.
Cite this entry: “atrocious.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/atrocious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.