grotesque

UK/ɡɹəʊˈtɛsk//ɡɹoʊˈtɛsk/

grotesque adjective: distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal, especially in a hideous way.

Adjective

grotesque (comparative grotesquer or more grotesque, superlative grotesquest or most grotesque)

Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal, especially in a hideous way.
- The chimney-piece was of party-coloured marble, covered with figures, some of whose faces were beautiful, but generally running off into those grotesque combinations which characterised the peculiar taste of their time.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 114
- A Libyan longing took us, and we would have chosen, if we could, to bear a strand of grotesque beads, or a handful of brazen gauds, and traffic them for some sable maid with crisp locks, whom, uncoffling from the captive train beside the desert, we should make to do our general housework forever...1912, The World's Wit and Humor, page 176
Disgusting or otherwise viscerally revolting.
- Trump’s grotesque and incomprehensible fondness for Putin makes the details of any deal highly dangerous for Europe and the NATO alliance, founded to confront Russia.2024 November 9, Nick Paton Walsh, “Trump’s second term could bring chaos around the world. Will it work?”, in CNN
Synonyms:

gross
Sans serif.

Noun

grotesque (countable and uncountable, plural grotesques)

A style of ornamentation characterized by fanciful combinations of intertwined forms.
Anything grotesque.
- Obese and largely unintelligible, Don Vito represents a working-class white male grotesque, the picture of excess.2009, Emily Chivers Yochim, Skate Life, page 128
- He’s also the new character from Sacha Baron Cohen, the man behind Ali G, Borat and Brüno: that unholy trinity of comic grotesques that told us a lot more about ourselves than we’d like to admit.2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London)
A sans serif typeface.

Verb

grotesque (third-person singular simple present grotesques, present participle grotesquing or grotesqueing, simple past and past participle grotesqued)

(transitive) To make grotesque.
- Why, when I saw that bestiality— / So beyond all brute-beast imagining, / That when, to point the moral at the close, / Poor Salabaccho, just to show how fair / Was ‘Reconciliation,’ stripped her charms, / That exhibition simply bade us breathe, / Seemed something healthy and commendable / After...1875, Robert Browning, Aristophanes’ Apology […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 27
- This is to grotesque Dante, not to translate him.1891 December 19, “Dante”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume LXXII, number 1,886, London: […], →OCLC, page 707, column 2

grotesque meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

grotesque in Hindi

distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous: विकृत vikŕt, बेडौल beḍaul, विरूप virūp, कुरूप kurūp

grotesque in Tamil

விசித்திரமான கற்பனைக் கதம்பம்

grotesque in Urdu

ان گھڑ

grotesque in Bengali

অদ্ভুত, কিম্ভূতকিমাকার, বিকৃত, হাস্যকরভাবে বেমানান

More languagesFewer languages

grotesque in Malayalam: വിരൂപമായ, വികൃതമായ
grotesque in Kannada: ವಿಕೃತ, ವಿಕಾರವಾದ, ವಿಚಿತ್ರವಾದ, ಅಸಂಬದ್ಧವಾದ
grotesque in Arabic: غَرِيب ḡarīb

Examples of grotesque in a sentence

There is screaming, a grotesque, awful screaming coming from many human mouths, coming from somewhere down the main road.2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 141:
At this point, species is seen antagonistically by the subject as something intent on restricting its freedom and grotesqueing its vitality.2010, Mark Driscoll, “Introduction”, in Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque: The Living, Dead, and Undead in Japan’s Imperialism...

All 40 example sentences with grotesque

Synonyms of grotesque

gross

Forms of grotesque

Adjective
comparative	grotesquer
comparative	more grotesque
superlative	grotesquest
superlative	most grotesque
Noun
plural	grotesques
Verb
third-person singular present	grotesques
present participle	grotesquing
present participle	grotesqueing
past participle	grotesqued
past	grotesqued

Origin of grotesque

Borrowed from Middle French grotesque, from Italian grottesco, from grotta (“cave”) + -esco (relational suffix). By surface analysis, grotto + -esque. Compare French grotesque, English grotto.

Words formed from grotesque

Words that rhyme with grotesque

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about grotesque

What does grotesque mean?: Grotesque means distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal, especially in a hideous way.
What is grotesque in Hindi?: Grotesque in Hindi is विकृत (vikŕt), बेडौल (beḍaul), विरूप (virūp). See Grotesque meaning in Hindi.
How do you use grotesque in a sentence?: There is screaming, a grotesque, awful screaming coming from many human mouths, coming from somewhere down the main road.
What part of speech is grotesque?: Grotesque can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce grotesque?: Grotesque is pronounced /ɡɹəʊˈtɛsk/ (UK).

Words near grotesque in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: grotesque (page history and authors); grotesque (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); grotesque (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Grotesque (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); grotesque (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); grotesque (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-grotesque.ogg, en-au-grotesque.ogg.

Cite this entry: “grotesque.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grotesque. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.