terrible
/ˈtɛɹəbəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/ˈteɹəbəl/
terrible adjective: dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome.
Adjective
terrible (comparative terribler or more terrible, superlative terriblest or most terrible)
- Dreadful; 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. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn...1950, C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- Formidable, powerful.
- […]and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog," and "real old salt," and such-like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
- "He is the right sort of man for a labourer, but he is a terrible eater, to be sure," thought the farmer.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 96
- Intense; extreme in degree or extent.
- He paid a terrible price for his life of drinking.
- ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
- Very unpleasant; disagreeable.
- The food was terrible, but it was free.
- To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- Very 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
- Prone 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
- Synonyms:
- awful
Adverb
terrible (comparative more terrible, superlative most terrible)
terrible meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
terrible in Hindi
- dreadful; causing alarm or fear
- भयंकर bhayaṅkar, भयानक bhayānak
- intense; extreme in degree or extent
- विकराल vikrāl
- very unpleasant
- भयावह bhayāvah
terrible in Tamil
- very unpleasant
- கேவலம் kēvalam, கண்றாவி kaṇṟāvi, மோசம் mōcam, மட்டம் maṭṭam
- very bad
- கேவலம் kēvalam, கண்றாவி kaṇṟāvi, மோசம் mōcam, மட்டம் maṭṭam
terrible in Marathi
- terrible, awful, horrible
- भयंकर bhayaṅkar
terrible in Urdu
- terrible, furious, angry
- ژیان žayān
- terrible, horrible
- فظیع fazī
More languagesFewer languages
- terrible in Bengali
- ভয়ানক, ভীতিজনক, ভয়ঙ্কর, ভয়াবহ
- terrible in Telugu
- భయానకము bhayānakamu
- terrible in Malayalam
- ഭയങ്കര bhayaṅkara, ദാരുണ dāruṇa
- terrible in Kannada
- ಘೋರ ghōra
- terrible in Punjabi
- ਭਿਆਨਕ
- terrible in Gujarati
- ભયંકર bhayaṅkar, ભંગાર bhaṅgār
- terrible in Odia
- ଭଯ଼ଙ୍କର
- terrible in Sanskrit
- भीष्म bhīṣma, घोर ghora
- terrible in Tagalog
- matindi
- terrible in Arabic
- فَظِيع faẓīʕ, مُرْعِب murʕib, أَرْبَد ʔarbad
- terrible in Persian
- وحشتناک vahšatnâk
- terrible in Thai
- แย่ yɛ̂ɛ, ไม่ดีเลย mâi dee loie
- terrible in Vietnamese
- khủng khiếp
Examples of terrible in a sentence
- 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:
- 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:
Synonyms of terrible
Antonyms
Forms of terrible
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | terribler |
| comparative | more terrible |
| superlative | terriblest |
| superlative | most terrible |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more terrible |
| superlative | most terrible |
Origin of terrible
Inherited from Middle English terrible, from Old French terrible, from Latin terribilis (“frightful”), from terreō (“to frighten, terrify, alarm; to deter by terror, scare (away)”). Compare terror, deter. By surface analysis, terror + -ible. Displaced Old English atol and sliþe, while also largely overtaking grimm.
Words formed from terrible
Phrases with terrible
Questions about terrible
- What does terrible mean?
- Terrible means dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome.
- What is terrible in Hindi?
- Terrible in Hindi is भयंकर (bhayaṅkar), भयानक (bhayānak), विकराल (vikrāl). See Terrible meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use terrible in a sentence?
- People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.
- What part of speech is terrible?
- Terrible can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce terrible?
- Terrible is pronounced /ˈtɛɹəbəl/ (UK).
Words near terrible in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: terrible (page history and authors); भयंकर (Marathi) (page history and authors); فظیع (Urdu) (page history and authors); terrible (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); భయానకము (Telugu) (page history and authors); ಘೋರ (Kannada) (page history and authors); terrible (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ભંગાર (Gujarati) (page history and authors); terrible (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Cite this entry: “terrible.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/terrible. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.