horrible
Syllables: hor·ri·bleUK/ˈhɒɹ.ɪ.bəl//ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/
horrible noun: a thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
Noun
horrible (plural horribles)
- A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
- Here's a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing. Such a waggish leering as lurks in all your horribles!1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
- A lot of the possible horribles conjured up by the people objecting to this convention ignore the plain language of this treaty.1982, United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, The Genocide Convention: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate
- A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.
Adjective
horrible (comparative horribler or more horrible, superlative horriblest or most horrible)
- Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
- Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which...1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
- Strangers fainted dead away at the sight of the Laughing Man's horrible face. Acquaintances shunned him.1949, J. D. Salinger, The Laughing Man
- Tremendously bad.
- Having now absorbed all or parts of 750 responses to my complaints about Transformers, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that most of those writing agree with me that it is a horrible movie.2010, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2010, page 599
horrible meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
horrible in Hindi
- causing horror, terrible
- भयंकर bhayaṅkar
horrible in Tamil
- பயங்கரமான
horrible in Urdu
- horrible, terrifying, frightful, dreadful
- خوفناک xaufnāk
horrible in Bengali
- ভয়ঙ্কর, ভয়ানক, ভয়াবহ, অপ্রীতিকর, ভীষণ, ভীম
More languagesFewer languages
- horrible in Telugu
- భీషణము bhīṣaṇamu
- horrible in Malayalam
- ഭീകരം bhīkaraṁ, ബീഭത്സം bībhatsaṁ, ഭയാനകമായ bhayānakamāya, ചീത്ത cītta
- horrible in Sanskrit
- भीषण bhīṣaṇa
- horrible in Arabic
- رَهِيب rahīb, فَظِيع faẓīʕ, أَرْبَد ʔarbad
Examples of horrible in a sentence
- The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles.1991, Alastair Scott, Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey:
- And I give him one horrible after the next.2000 January 21, John Dean, CNN interview:
- Many scholars have demonstrated these horribles and contemplated significant limitations on class actions.2001, Neil K. Komesar, Law's Limits: The Rule of Law and the Supply and Demand of Rights:
- Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing.1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
Synonyms of horrible
Forms of horrible
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | horribles |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | horribler |
| comparative | more horrible |
| superlative | horriblest |
| superlative | most horrible |
Origin of horrible
First attested in Middle English (alternately as horrible and orrible) in 1303: from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, from Latin horribilis, from horr(ēre) (“tremble”) + -ibilis (“-ible”).
Words formed from horrible
Questions about horrible
- What does horrible mean?
- Horrible means a thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
- What is horrible in Hindi?
- Horrible in Hindi is भयंकर (bhayaṅkar). See Horrible meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use horrible in a sentence?
- The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles.
- What part of speech is horrible?
- Horrible can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce horrible?
- Horrible is pronounced /ˈhɒɹ.ɪ.bəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of horrible?
- The plural of horrible is horribles.
Words near horrible in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: horrible (page history and authors); horrible (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); خوفناک (Urdu) (page history and authors); horrible (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); భీషణము (Telugu) (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: en-us-horrible.ogg.
Cite this entry: “horrible.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/horrible. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.