awe-inspiring
/ˈoːɹɪnˌspaɪɹɪŋ//ˈɔː ɪnˌspaɪɹɪŋ/
awe-inspiring adjective: inspiring awe; awesome. Also the present participle and gerund of awe-inspire.
Adjective
awe-inspiring (comparative more awe-inspiring, superlative most awe-inspiring)
- Inspiring awe; awesome.
- The Taj Mahal is an awe-inspiring sight.
- Across the far end of the cavern, with a grinding and crashing noise - a noise so dreadful and awe-inspiring that we all trembled, and Job actually sank to his knees - there flamed out an awful cloud or pillar of fire, like a rainbow many-coloured, and like the lightning bright.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- dreadful
Also used as
awe-inspiring is also the present participle and gerund of awe-inspire.
Examples of awe-inspiring in a sentence
- There is nothing so terrifying or so awe-inspiring as the unknown.1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the...
- However, as some compensation for this deficiency, the four 2-6-4 tanks on this section are fitted with steam smokebox-ash blowers, which are unique, useful, and awe-inspiring pieces of apparatus.1954 August, J. B. Snell, “The New Zealand Government Railways—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 562:
Synonyms of awe-inspiring
Forms of awe-inspiring
| comparative | more awe-inspiring |
|---|---|
| superlative | most awe-inspiring |
Words formed from awe-inspiring
- awe-inspiringly
- awe-inspiringness
Questions about awe-inspiring
- What does awe-inspiring mean?
- Awe-inspiring means inspiring awe; awesome.
- How do you use awe-inspiring in a sentence?
- There is nothing so terrifying or so awe-inspiring as the unknown.
- What part of speech is awe-inspiring?
- Awe-inspiring is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce awe-inspiring?
- Awe-inspiring is pronounced /ˈɔː ɪnˌspaɪɹɪŋ/ (UK).
Words near awe-inspiring in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: awe-inspiring (page history and authors). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-awe-inspiring.wav.
Cite this entry: “awe-inspiring.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/awe-inspiring. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.