Standard Lemma guide

hellish

adj · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈhɛlɪʃ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛlɪʃ
  • CMU ARPABET: HH EH1 L IH0 SH Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

infernal, related or similar to hell.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: helly, stygian, Acherontic, infernal, Hadean, hellish, Plutonic, Plutonian, subtartarean, Tartarean

Antonyms: heavenly

2

adj

Meaning 2

causing great pain, discomfort or distress.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: excessive

Examples

  • I woke up from a hellish noise coming from the house next door.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: awful, horrible, infernal, nightmarish, terrible, agonizing, ailsome, excruciating, groanful, hellish, hurtful, painable, painful, tormenting, tormentous, torturous, unpleasant, wrenchful, abysmal, atrocious, bad, chronic, coarse, corny, crap, crapalicious, crappy, crummy, deityforsaken, dire, disagreeable, dismal, dogshit, dreadful, fifth-rate, foul, fourth-rate, godawful, hideous, hopeless, horrendous, horrid, horrific, inadequate, incompetent, inelegant, intolerable, inferior, lackluster, loathsome, lousy, miserable, naff, negative, odious, ordinary, pathetic, peak, piss-poor, rotten, rubbish, shitawful, shitty, sixth-rate, sloppy, subpar, unfavorable, wack

Antonyms: heavenly

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

extremely evil or cruel; expressive of cruelty or befitting hell

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • something demonic in him--something that could be cruel
  • fires lit up a diabolic scene
  • diabolical sorcerers under the influence of devils
  • a fiendish despot
  • hellish torture
  • infernal instruments of war
  • satanic cruelty
  • unholy grimaces

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: demonic, diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, infernal, satanic, unholy

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective satellite

Meaning 4

very unpleasant

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • hellish weather
  • stop that god-awful racket

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: beastly, god-awful

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-der. Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-yo- /*ḱol-yeh2-der.? Proto-Germanic *haljō Proto-West Germanic *hallju Old English hell Middle English helle English hell Proto-Indo-European *-iskos Proto-Germanic *-iskaz Proto-West Germanic *-isk Old English -isċ Middle English -ish English -ish English hellish From hell + -ish.

Across languages

Translations

34 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: جَحِيمِيّ (jaḥīmiyy) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Arabic: جَهَنَّمِيّ (jahannamiyy) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Armenian: դժոխային (džoxayin) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Belarusian: пяке́льны (pjakjélʹny) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Bulgarian: а́дски (ádski) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Bulgarian: пъ́клен (pǎ́klen) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Czech: pekelný — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Danish: helvedes — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Danish: infernalsk — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Dutch: hels — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Finnish: helvetillinen — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • French: infernal — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • German: höllisch — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Italian: infernale — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Macedonian: пеколен (pekolen) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Macedonian: адски (adski) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Malayalam: നരക (naraka) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Norman: înfèrna — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Norwegian Bokmål: helvetes — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Norwegian Bokmål: infernalsk — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Polish: piekielny — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Portuguese: infernal — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Romanian: infernal — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Russian: а́дский (ádskij) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Russian: а́довый (ádovyj) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Serbo-Croatian: па̀клен — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Serbo-Croatian: pàklen — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Slovak: pekelný — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Slovene: peklenski — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Spanish: infernal — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Swedish: helvetisk — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Swedish: infernalisk — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Ukrainian: пеке́льний (pekélʹnyj) — causing pain, discomfort or distress
  • Urdu: جَہَنَّمی (jahannamī) — causing pain, discomfort or distress