horrible

English

Etymology

First attested in Middle English (alternately as horrible and orrible) in 1303: from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, from Latin horribilis, from horr(ēre) (“tremble”) + -ibilis (“-ible”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɒɹɪbəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɹɪbəl/, /ˈhɒɹɪbəl/, [-bəɫ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (New York City, Philadelphia, Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹɪbəl/

Noun

horrible (plural horribles)

1. A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     Here's a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing. Such a waggish leering as lurks in all your horribles!

   • 1982, United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, The Genocide Convention: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate:

     A lot of the possible horribles conjured up by the people objecting to this convention ignore the plain language of this treaty.

   • 1991, Alastair Scott, Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey:

     The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles.

   • 2000 January 21, John Dean, CNN interview‎^[1]:

     I'm trying to convince him that the criminal behavior that's going on at the White House has to end. And I give him one horrible after the next. I just keep raising them. He sort of swats them away.

   • 2001, Neil K. Komesar, Law's Limits: The Rule of Law and the Supply and Demand of Rights:

     Many scholars have demonstrated these horribles and contemplated significant limitations on class actions.

2. A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.

Translations

terrifying thing

• Bulgarian: ужасия (bg) (užasija)
• Finnish: kauheus (fi)
• Malayalam: ഭീകരം (ml) (bhīkaraṁ), ബീഭത്സം (ml) (bībhatsaṁ)
• Portuguese: horrível (pt) m or f
• Romanian: înfiorare (ro) f, înfricoșare (ro) f, groază (ro) f
• Turkish: korkunç (tr), berbat (tr)

Adjective

horrible (comparative horribler or more horrible, superlative horriblest or most horrible)

1. Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.

   • 1949, J. D. Salinger, The Laughing Man:

     Strangers fainted dead away at the sight of the Laughing Man's horrible face. Acquaintances shunned him.

     The New Yorker, March 19

   • 1953, Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451:

     Some of us have had plastic surgery on our faces and fingerprints. Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end.

   • 1933, James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times:

     Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.

2. Tremendously bad.
   • 2010, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2010, page 599:

     Having now absorbed all or parts of 750 responses to my complaints about Transformers, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that most of those writing agree with me that it is a horrible movie.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:frightening
• See Thesaurus:bad

Related terms

• horrific
• horrify
• horror
• horrendous

Translations

causing horror, terrible

• Afrikaans: aaklig (af)
• Arabic: رَهِيب (rahīb), فَظِيع (faẓīʕ)
• Asturian: horrible
• Belarusian: жахлі́вы (žaxlívy), стра́шны (strášny)
• Bulgarian: ужа́сен (bg) (užásen), стра́шен (bg) (strášen)
• Catalan: horrible (ca), hòrrid (ca), esgarrifós (ca)
• Chechen: къемате (qʼemate)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 可怕的 (kěpà de), 可畏 (kěwèi)

• Czech: hrozný (cs), strašný (cs)
• Dutch: verschrikkelijk (nl)
• Esperanto: horora, terura
• Finnish: kauhea (fi), kauhistuttava (fi), hirvittävä (fi), karmiva (fi), kammottava (fi)
• French: horrible (fr), affreux (fr)
• Galician: horrible (gl), horríbel (gl)
• Georgian: საშინელი (sašineli)
• German: schrecklich (de), abscheulich (de), fies (de), makaber (de), entsetzlich (de), grausig (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: φρικώδης (phrikṓdēs), αἰνός (ainós), ἄπλατος (áplatos)

• Hindi: भयंकर (hi) (bhayaṅkar)
• Hungarian: borzalmas (hu), borzasztó (hu), rettenetes (hu)
• Icelandic: hræðilegur (is)
• Ido: ledega (io)
• Irish: gránna, uafásach
• Italian: orribile (it), terribile (it)
• Japanese: 恐ろしい (ja) (おそろしい, osoroshii)
• Kazakh: қорқынышты (qorqynyşty)
• Korean: 끔찍하다 (ko) (kkeumjjikhada)
• Latin: dīrus, horribilis, horrificus, horrendus
• Latvian: šausmīgs
• Macedonian: ужасен (užasen), страшен (strašen)
• Malayalam: ഭയാനകമായ (bhayānakamāya)
• Norman: hôrribl'ye
• Old English: eġeslīċ
• Polish: straszny (pl), okropny (pl)
• Portuguese: horrível (pt)
• Romanian: oribil (ro), groaznic (ro), îngrozitor (ro)
• Russian: ужа́сный (ru) (užásnyj), стра́шный (ru) (strášnyj)
• Sanskrit: भीषण (sa) (bhīṣaṇa)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: у̏жа̄сан, стра́шан

  Roman: ȕžāsan (sh), strášan (sh)

• Slovak: hrozný, strašný
• Slovene: grozen (sl)
• Spanish: horrible (es), horrendo (es)
• Swedish: fasansfull (sv), hemsk (sv)
• Tocharian B: empele
• Turkish: korkunç (tr)
• Ukrainian: жахли́вий (žaxlývyj), страшни́й (strašnýj)

tremendously bad

• Arabic: فَظِيع (faẓīʕ), أَرْبَد (ʔarbad)
• Bulgarian: ужасен (bg) (užasen)
• Catalan: horrible (ca), terrible (ca), pèssim (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 糟透的 (zāotòu de)

• Finnish: surkea (fi)
• French: horrible (fr), épouvantable (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: ^{(please verify)} schrecklich (de)
• Kazakh: жантүршігерлік (jantürşıgerlık)
• Malayalam: ചീത്ത (ml) (cītta)
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} oribil (ro)
• Russian: ужа́сный (ru) (užásnyj)
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} förskräcklig (sv)
• Turkish: berbat (tr)

Asturian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horribilis.

Adjective

horrible (epicene, plural horribles)

1. horrible

Related terms

• horror

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horribilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [uˈrib.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [oˈri.ble]

Adjective

horrible m or f (masculine and feminine plural horribles)

1. horrible

Derived terms

• horriblement

Related terms

• horror

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, borrowed from Latin horribilis.

Pronunciation

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /ɔ.ʁibl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

horrible (plural horribles)

1. horrible (causing horror)

Derived terms

• horriblement

Related terms

• horreur

Further reading

• “horrible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Alternative forms

• horríbel

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin horribilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oˈriβlɪ/

Adjective

horrible m or f (plural horribles)

1. horrible

Derived terms

• horriblemente

Related terms

• horror

Middle English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, from Latin horribilis.

Adjective

horrible

1. horrible

Descendants

• English: horrible

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horribilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oˈrible/ [oˈri.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -ible
• Syllabification: ho‧rri‧ble

Adjective

horrible m or f (masculine and feminine plural horribles)

1. horrible

   Synonym: desapacible

Derived terms

• horriblemente

 

Related terms

• horror

 

Further reading

• “horrible”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10