| English Dictionary |
TERRIBLE
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Dictionary entry overview: What does terrible mean?
• TERRIBLE (adjective)
The adjective TERRIBLE has 4 senses:
1. causing fear or dread or terror
2. exceptionally bad or displeasing
3. intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality
4. extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact
Familiarity information: TERRIBLE used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Causing fear or dread or terror
Synonyms:
awful; dire; direful; dread; dreaded; dreadful; fearful; fearsome; frightening; horrendous; horrific; terrible
Context example:
a terrible curse
Similar:
alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)
Derivation:
terribleness (a quality of extreme unpleasantness)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Exceptionally bad or displeasing
Synonyms:
abominable; atrocious; awful; dreadful; painful; terrible; unspeakable
Context example:
an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room
Similar:
bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)
Derivation:
terribleness (a quality of extreme unpleasantness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality
Synonyms:
Context example:
a wicked cough
Similar:
intense (possessing or displaying a distinctive feature to a heightened degree)
Derivation:
terribleness (a quality of extreme unpleasantness)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact
Synonyms:
awful; frightful; terrible; tremendous
Context example:
spent a frightful amount of money
Similar:
extraordinary (beyond what is ordinary or usual; highly unusual or exceptional or remarkable)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Derivation:
terribleness (a quality of extreme unpleasantness)
Context examples
The patience of the wolf was terrible.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
But those terrible hands of his!
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
It was something terrible and deadly.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As to this terrible person of yours, where is he?
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And that is what is so terrible.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The one might wag, but the others held their terrible grip on White Fang's throat.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Suddenly, she cries, in a terrible voice, “Rosa, come to me. He is dead!”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
“No, it is splendid, and it is terrible, too. Do you know, it sometimes makes me afraid.”
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
More than one person fainted at the mere sight of him, so terrible was the effect.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
About twelve o’clock we heard the terrible news.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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