TERRIBLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Terrible

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/tˈɛrəbəl/ Listen

Terrible

adjective

1.

Causing fear or dread or terror. Synonyms: awful, dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific. "An awful risk" , "Dire news" , "A career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked" , "The dread presence of the headmaster" , "Polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was" , "A dreadful storm" , "A fearful howling" , "Horrendous explosions shook the city" , "A terrible curse"

2.

Exceptionally bad or displeasing. Synonyms: abominable, atrocious, awful, dreadful, painful, unspeakable. "Abominable workmanship" , "An awful voice" , "Dreadful manners" , "A painful performance" , "Terrible handwriting" , "An unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room"

3.

Intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality. Synonyms: severe, wicked. "A severe case of flu" , "A terrible cough" , "Under wicked fire from the enemy's guns" , "A wicked cough"

4.

Extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact. Synonyms: awful, frightful, tremendous. "Spent a frightful amount of money"

See more definitions of Terrible...

See images of 'Terrible'

Etymology of 'Terrible'

Related searches:

enfant terrible

Ivan the Terrible

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Terrible" Quotes from Famous Books

... "that I could have suspected of such a thing! The man who has the highest reputation in the city for sound judgment and unexceptionable conduct, to turn out the greatest fool! An old ass! How little be dreams of what he is bringing upon himself. Let alone the terrible fall, the disgrace,—in every way, disgrace and contempt and ridicule! It seems impossible, even now, that he should be in earnest. He must be mad! And, davvero, his manner was at times so strange, that I could almost believe he really is not quite in his right mind. Very strange his manner was,—very! ...

— A Siren • Thomas Adolphus Trollope

... he deems in safe condition. Thus far since the establishment of this office we have had no serious accidents, which leads me to the belief that in most cases a monthly examination will discover in time the causes of many terrible casualties; also that it is not safe to operate elevators unless so inspected by ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883 • Various

... with this new movement in obstetrics to reduce the woman's pain and suffering to the lowest possible minimum, that the trials of labor should not be overdrawn and the pangs of confinement overestimated. We must not educate the normal woman to look upon labor as a terrible ordeal—something like a major surgical operation—which, since it cannot be escaped, must be endured with the ...

— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler

... counties; half overgrown with moss and ivy, and standing in the centre of a little plot of ground, which, but for the green mounds with which it was studded, might have passed for a lovely meadow. I fancied that the old clanking bell which was now summoning the congregation together, would seem less terrible when it rung out the knell of a departed soul, than I had ever deemed possible before—that the sound would tell only of a welcome to calmness and rest, amidst the most peaceful ...

— Sunday Under Three Heads • Charles Dickens

... "A terrible piece of evidence, indeed," said I, "if I did not happen to know that this letter refers to the destruction of something radically different from what you suspect. It alludes to some papers in Mrs. ...

— The Leavenworth Case • Anna Katharine Green

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com