MONSTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does monster mean? 

• MONSTER (noun)
  The noun MONSTER has 5 senses:

1. an imaginary creature usually having various human and animal parts

2. someone or something that is abnormally large and powerful

3. a person or animal that is markedly unusual or deformed

4. a cruel wicked and inhuman person

5. (medicine) a grossly malformed and usually nonviable fetus

  Familiarity information: MONSTER used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MONSTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An imaginary creature usually having various human and animal parts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("monster" is a kind of...):

imaginary being; imaginary creature (a creature of the imagination; a person that exists only in legends or myths or fiction)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "monster"):

bogeyman; booger; boogeyman; bugaboo; bugbear (an imaginary monster used to frighten children)

mythical creature; mythical monster (a monster renowned in folklore and myth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone or something that is abnormally large and powerful

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

behemoth; colossus; giant; goliath; monster

Hypernyms ("monster" is a kind of...):

anomaly; unusual person (a person who is unusual)

Derivation:

monstrous (abnormally large)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person or animal that is markedly unusual or deformed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

freak; lusus naturae; monster; monstrosity

Hypernyms ("monster" is a kind of...):

mutant; mutation; sport; variation ((biology) an organism that has characteristics resulting from chromosomal alteration)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "monster"):

leviathan (the largest or most massive thing of its kind)

Derivation:

monstrous (distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A cruel wicked and inhuman person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

demon; devil; fiend; monster; ogre

Hypernyms ("monster" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "monster"):

demoniac (someone who acts as if possessed by a demon)

Derivation:

monstrous (shockingly brutal or cruel)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(medicine) a grossly malformed and usually nonviable fetus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

monster; teras

Hypernyms ("monster" is a kind of...):

fetus; foetus (an unborn or unhatched vertebrate in the later stages of development showing the main recognizable features of the mature animal)

Meronyms (parts of "monster"):

acardia (congenital absence of the heart (as in the development of some monsters))

acephalia; acephalism; acephaly (absence of the head (as in the development of some monsters))

Domain category:

medical specialty; medicine (the branches of medical science that deal with nonsurgical techniques)

Derivation:

monstrous (distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous)

 Context examples 

What a wonderful thing! said the king; I have seen many strange things, but such a monster as this I never saw.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

And yet, if it be true, what terrible things there are in the world, and what an awful thing if that man, that monster, be really in London!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I dare say it was by some such device that poor Savage, who stood between this monster and a reversion, was done to death.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had been the author of unalterable evils, and I lived in daily fear lest the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Thick, woolly hair covered every part of it, and a more dreadful-looking monster could not be imagined.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

During 2019, we have had eclipses in this part of your chart on January 5, and July 16 (that one was a monster eclipse for some Libras).

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

This food storage might explain how these cosmic monsters grew so fast during a period in the Universe’s history known as the Cosmic Dawn.

(ESO Observations Reveal Black Holes' Breakfast at the Cosmic Dawn, ESO)

You have called me snake, tiger, shark, monster, and Caliban.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Astronomers studying distant galaxies powered by monster black holes have uncovered an unexpected link between two very different wavelengths of the light they emit, the mid-infrared and gamma rays.

(WISE, Fermi Missions Reveal a Surprising Blazar Connection, NASA)

What the scientists do know is that the sea monster is more than 4 meters long.

(Sea Monster Swam Oceans 170 Million Years Ago, Voanews)