Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use terrible in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, adverb

Terrible means dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome. Example: “The witch laid a terrible curse on him.”

Examples of terrible by meaning

adjectiveDreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome.

  • The witch laid a terrible curse on him.
  • People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.1950, C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

adjectiveIntense; extreme in degree or extent.

  • He paid a terrible price for his life of drinking.

adjectiveVery unpleasant; disagreeable.

  • The food was terrible, but it was free.

adjectiveVery bad; lousy.

  • Whatever he thinks, he is a terrible driver.
  • The openly ridiculous plot has The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) scheming to win the Pirate Of The Year competition, even though he’s a terrible pirate, far outclassed by rivals voiced by Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek.2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits”, in The Onion AV Club

adjectiveProne to a particular temptation.

  • He's a terrible man for beer.
  • I should have known designing was in my blood as I'm terrible for tweaking patterns I'm stitching.2022, Hayley Wellock, quotee, Cross Stitcher, number 385, Magazines Global, page 71
  • A terrible man for falling in love, God bless him!2024 January 2, St. John G. Ervine, The Foolish Lovers, BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, page 11

adverbIn a terrible way; to a terrible extent; terribly; awfully.

  • ‘Oh, terrible bad, sir, terrible deep the snow is,’ said the hedgehog.1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, Ware: Wordsworth Classics, published 1993, page 59

More sentences with terrible

  • I have terrible constipation – I haven't been for several days.From the entry be
  • He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.From the entry pay
  • I'm a terrible cook, so I eat a lot of frozen dinners.From the entry cook
  • The market decline was terrible, but the shorts were buying champagne.From the entry short
  • When I returned home, I found my house and belongings in a most terrible way.From the entry way
  • I have a terrible brown thumb. I could probably kill silk flowers.From the entry brown thumb
  • She suffered a terrible collapse after slipping on the wet floor.From the entry collapse
  • You committed terrible actions — to wit, murder and theft — and should be punished accordingly.From the entry wit
  • Despite all the terrible things that happened to her, she never wavered from her beliefs.From the entry waver
  • When I last tried to eat strawberries I had a terrible allergic reaction.From the entry reaction
  • Despite being a near-mirror image my of right, my left hand is terrible at these stuff.From the entry despite
  • He used to have a terrible lisp before going to a speech therapist.From the entry lisp
  • Jones put the penalty shot over the bar — what a terrible miss.From the entry miss
  • I was on a winning streak until the fourth game, when I was dealt terrible cards.From the entry streak
  • I stepped in some goo and had a terrible time getting the sticky stuff off my shoes.From the entry goo
  • When I heard about it I got myself into a terrible temper.From the entry temper
  • (from intense concern) Whew! Thank goodness youʼre safe! I thought something terrible had happened to you!From the entry whew
  • Early to bed and early to rise is a prescription for a long, healthy, and terrible life.From the entry prescription
  • Stevia is not substitutable for sugar in baking: the recipes won't work; they taste terrible.From the entry substitutable
  • He did a terrible job, and then charged more than twice the going rate for it!From the entry going rate
  • Something in the fridge smelled terrible. The offending article was soon identified and removed.From the entry offending
  • I’ve got a terrible headache. – Have you, dear? Take this tablet and you won't anymore.From the entry have got
  • I have had this terrible cough ever since I started smoking.From the entry ever since
  • This shooter has a terrible taste, but is downable after a few pints.From the entry downable
  • Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.From the entry Tirzah
  • The loud knock at the door gave me a terrible jump scare.From the entry jump scare
  • This cello has a terrible wolf tone on the D string.From the entry wolf tone
  • That was a terrible game. Our team was just not at the races.From the entry at the races
  • I had a terrible thirst on me.From the entry on
  • The show was opened by a terrible Elvis impersonator.From the entry open

Meaning of terrible

  1. adjective Dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome.
  2. adjective Formidable, powerful.
  3. adjective Intense; extreme in degree or extent.

Full definition of terrible

Questions about terrible in a sentence

How do you use terrible in a sentence?
Terrible is used as an adjective and adverb. For example: “The witch laid a terrible curse on him.”
What is a short sentence with terrible?
“He's a terrible man for beer.”
What does terrible mean?
Terrible means dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: terrible (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.

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