Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use horrible in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective

Horrible means a thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act. Example: “It's not that their interior decorating is horrible; it's just that, well, it's so corporate.”

Examples of horrible by meaning

nounA thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result...

  • 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...
  • 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

adjectiveCausing horror; terrible; shocking.

  • Strangers fainted dead away at the sight of the Laughing Man's horrible face.1949, J. D. Salinger, The Laughing Man
  • Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end.1953, Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
  • Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.1933, James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times

adjectiveTremendously 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

More sentences with horrible

  • It's not that their interior decorating is horrible; it's just that, well, it's so corporate.From the entry corporate
  • I could hear the screech of the brakes, then the horrible smash of cars colliding.From the entry smash
  • That horrible story just might make an indelible impression on the memory.From the entry indelible
  • That was a horrible tackle: he can expect an early bath for that.From the entry early bath
  • Boy, do I feel horrible after drinking too many mustache rides last night.From the entry mustache ride
  • You need to patch things up with your sister after that horrible argument.From the entry patch up
  • That my own son could have done something so horrible is a hard pill to swallow.From the entry hard pill to swallow
  • After finding out her horrible secret, the son froze his mother out of his life.From the entry freeze out
  • "Did you hear? There was an antisemitic attack yesterday!" — "That's horrible! Lo aleinu!"From the entry lo aleinu
  • She was wearing a horrible clash of red and orange.From the entry clash
  • His policy prescription was sound, but the optics were horrible.From the entry optics
  • The horrible sight made my skin crawl.From the entry crawl
  • The things he subjected me to were horrible and unforgettable.From the entry unforgettable
  • Ned was a horrible jabberer about Star Trek; I could hardly get a word in edgewise around his incomprehensible techno-babble.From the entry jabberer
  • I relive that horrible accident every night and wake screaming.From the entry relive
  • Traffic was horrible on the main roads, but she knew all the back roads and side streets, and managed to get there quickly.From the entry side street
  • Democrats are quick to say that President Donald Trump’s tariffs are horrible, awful, terrible.2025 April 12, Josh Boak and Matt Brown, “Democrats dislike the ‘chaos’ of Trump’s trade war but are OK with some tariffs”, in AP News…. From the entry inherently
  • "It's all about trying - to use that horrible management phrase - to 'sweat the asset'."2024 April 3, Richard Foster, “Training the next generation of engineers”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 51. From the entry push the envelope
  • And now, they have infiltrated our street.” “I have had horrible experiences with shapeshifters in the past.2024 November 11, Jake Bender & Zach Dunn, “Laszlo's Father” (1:34 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 6…. From the entry shapeshifter
  • Elsewhere, William writes, “The media makes a lot of horrible accusations against incels.2023 January, Meg Roser, Charlotte Chalker and Tim Squirrell, quoting William, “Spitting out the blackpill: Evaluating how incels present…. From the entry blackpiller
  • It's understandable- we had a horrible plague, followed by two years of COVID!2022 April 30, Joe Biden, 0:36 from the start, in President Biden complete remarks at 2022 White House Correspondents' Dinner (C-SPAN)…. From the entry plague
  • Sadly, I was the one minxing around, so I was inevitably going to meet a horrible death.2014, Kelly Brook, Close Up: The Autobiography, London: Sidgwick & Jackson, →ISBN. From the entry minx
  • I sit shaking in fear and shock from the horrible jumpscare.2011 January 27, [ste parker], “Re: BA Alan Wake”, in uk.games.video.misc (Usenet). From the entry jumpscare
  • The Cross in its horrible illustration of overwhelming sin was in itself a demonstration of superoverwhelming grace.2010, Leslie C. Allen; Stuart Briscoe; Myron Augsburger; Earl Palmer; Kenneth L. Chafin; Gary W. Demarest; Russell H. Dilday; Maxie D.…. From the entry superoverwhelming
  • Don loved the minihamburgers even though they gave him horrible indigestion.2007, Fern Michaels, Free Fall, page 312. From the entry minihamburger
  • I think we should just keep flying and leave this horrible place behind us.2006 November 17, John O'Bryan, “The Earth King” (2:10 from the start), in Ethan Spaulding, director, Avatar: The Last Airbender, season 2…. From the entry conspiracy
  • The first sign of it is usually a horrible stink like rotten meat.2006 October 21, Peter Marren, “Day of the fungi”, in The Daily Telegraph, page 15. From the entry devil's fingers
  • Hinduism has a thousand faces for God, some likable, some horrible.2005, Tim Stafford, Knowing the Face of God, Revised Edition: Deepening Your Personal Relationship with God, Wipf and Stock Publishers…. From the entry how
  • If it does not appeal to you as one of the horribles in life, try it once.2005, Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson, A Woman Tenderfoot, page 125. From the entry horribles
  • He’d have told that horrible sister of his that more coloureds had just turned up.2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 9, in Small Island, London: Review, page 112. From the entry bemoan
  • Apart from his horrible English face, he looked like a Paddy, y'know.2002, Shane MacGowan, Victoria Mary Clarke, A Drink with Shane MacGowan, →ISBN, page 114. From the entry yknow
  • Big who has been misfigured by a horrible logging accident and has escaped from Jane's nightmares.2000, Steve Tatham, 1001, a Video Odyssey: Movies to Watch for Your Every Mood, page 181. From the entry misfigure
  • Horrible, the fateful figure, steadying itself against Old Winter, who was having the first real look in.1997 [1929], Cherry Wilson, “The Wallflower” (chapter XV), in Thunder Brakes, Firecrest Publishing Limited, page 164. From the entry fireful

Meaning of horrible

  1. noun A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
  2. noun A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.
  3. adjective Causing horror; terrible; shocking.

Full definition of horrible

Questions about horrible in a sentence

How do you use horrible in a sentence?
Horrible is used as a noun and adjective. For example: “It's not that their interior decorating is horrible; it's just that, well, it's so corporate.”
What is a short sentence with horrible?
“The horrible sight made my skin crawl.”
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.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: horrible (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use horrible in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/horrible. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.