terrible
/ˈtɛɹəbəl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.71 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
Very unpleasant; disagreeable.
adj
Example Sentences
- "The witch laid a terrible curse on him."
- "People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn't look at him and went all trembly."
- "[…]and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog," and "real old salt," and such-like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea."
- ""He is the right sort of man for a labourer, but he is a terrible eater, to be sure," thought the farmer."
- "He paid a terrible price for his life of drinking."
- "‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tres- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *troséyeti Proto-Italic *trozeō Latin terreō Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin terribilislbor. Old French terriblebor. Middle English terrible English terrible Inherited from Middle English terrible, from Old French terrible, from Latin terribilis (“frightful”), from terreō (“to frighten, terrify, alarm; to deter by terror, scare (away)”). Compare terror, deter. By surface analysis, terror + -ible. Displaced Old English atol and sliþe, while also largely overtaking grimm.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: terrible, terribilis
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtɛɹəbəl/
- British English: /ˈtɛɹəbəl/
Usage
Inflected Forms
terribler (comparative)
more terrible (comparative)
terriblest (superlative)
most terrible (superlative)