Standard Lemma guide

horrendous

adj · 2 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.

  • hərĕn'dəs
  • /həˈɹɛndəs/
  • dated: ərĕn'dəs
  • dated: /əˈɹɛndəs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛndəs
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AO2 R EH1 N D AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Extremely bad; awful; terrible.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • There was horrendous carnage at the scene of the plane crash.
  • My journey to work this morning was horrendous!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

causing fear or dread or terror

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • 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

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: awful, dire, direful, dread(a), dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrific, terrible

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

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

Across languages

Translations

11 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Esperanto: aĉa — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • Finnish: hirveä — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • Finnish: kauhea — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • Finnish: hirmuinen — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • French: épouvantable — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • German: entsetzlich — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • German: horrend — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • Latin: horrendus — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • Russian: ужа́сный (užásnyj) — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • Russian: жу́ткий (žútkij) — extremely bad; awful; terrible
  • Spanish: horrendo — extremely bad; awful; terrible