Link Centre Dictionary

horrendous

hor·ren·dous

UK/həˈɹɛndəs/ US/əˈɹɛndəs/ uncommon

adjective

1.

causing fear or dread or terror

  • “the awful war”
  • “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”

Origin

Borrowed from Latin horrendus, future passive participle (gerundive) of horreō (“to dread”) + -ous.

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.