hideous
/ˈhɪd.i.əs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
obsolete/ˈhɪd͡ʒəs/
hideous adjective: extremely or shockingly ugly.
Adjective
hideous (comparative more hideous, superlative most hideous)
- Extremely or shockingly ugly.
- I’m sorry to break it to you, but your dress looks truly hideous.
- the Duke's army departed unmolested : but the highway along which he retired presented a piteous and hideous spectacle.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC
- Having a very unpleasant or frightening sound.
- He started up, growling at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then got upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard.1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC
- Hateful; shocking.
- [W]hat may this meane, / That thou, dead corſe, againe in compleate ſteele, / Reuiſſits thus the glimſes of the Moone, / Making night hideous, and vve fooles of nature, / So horridely to ſhake our diſpoſition, / VVith thoughts beyond the reaches of our ſoules?c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell...
- Sure, you have some hideous matter to deliver.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Morally offensive; shocking; detestable.
- when the wind is shrieking, and the men are yelling, and every plank thunders with trampling feet right over Jonah’s head; in all this raging tumult, Jonah sleeps his hideous sleep.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter IX, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
hideous meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
hideous in Urdu
- بھیانک, دہشت ناک, ڈراؤنا, ہیبت انگیز, ہولناک, خطرناک
hideous in Bengali
- অত্যন্ত কুৎসিত, বীভৎস, ভয়ংকর
hideous in Malayalam
- ബീഭത്സമായ, അറപ്പുതോന്നിക്കുന്ന, ഭീകരമായ
hideous in Kannada
- ಭಯಂಕರ, ಭೀಕರ, ಕರಾಳ, ಘೋರ, ವಿಕಾರವಾದ, ಅವಲಕ್ಷಣದ
Examples of hideous in a sentence
- Sally’s car uttered a hideous shriek when she applied the brakes.
- What a fright you looked in that hideous outfit.
- This is the age of the Cry-Bully, a hideous hybrid of victim and victor, weeper and walloper.
Synonyms of hideous
Forms of hideous
| comparative | more hideous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most hideous |
Origin of hideous
From Middle English hidous, from Anglo-Norman hidous, from Old French hideus, hydus (“that which inspires terror”), from earlier hisdos, from Old French hisda (“horror, fear”), of uncertain and disputed origin. Probably from Proto-West Germanic *agisiþu (“horror, terror”), from Proto-West Germanic *agisōn (“to frighten, terrorise”), from Proto-Germanic *agaz (“terror, fear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰ- (“to frighten”). Cognate with Old High German egisa, egidī (“horror”), Old English egesa (“fear, dread”), Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (agis, “fear, terror”). Alternative etymology cites possible derivation from Latin hispidosus (“rugged”), from hispidus (“rough, bristly”), yet the semantic evolution is less plausible.
Words formed from hideous
Words that rhyme with hideous
Questions about hideous
- What does hideous mean?
- Hideous means extremely or shockingly ugly.
- What is hideous in Urdu?
- Hideous in Urdu is بھیانک, دہشت ناک, ڈراؤنا. See Hideous meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is hideous?
- Hideous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce hideous?
- Hideous is pronounced /ˈhɪd.i.əs/.
Words near hideous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hideous (page history and authors); hideous (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Hideous (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hideous (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hideous (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hideous.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hideous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hideous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.