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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

terrible.

Dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈtɛɹəbəl/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈtɛɹəbl̩]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɛɹɪbəl/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈtɛɹɪbl̩]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation

  1. Dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome

    The witch laid a terrible curse on him.

  2. Formidable, powerful.

  3. Intense; extreme in degree or extent.

    He paid a terrible price for his life of drinking.

  4. Very unpleasant; disagreeable.

    The food was terrible, but it was free.

  5. Very bad; lousy.

    Whatever he thinks, he is a terrible driver.

  6. Prone to a particular temptation.

    Ireland · especially
    He's a terrible man for beer.
Where this word comes from

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.

adv/ˈtɛɹəbəl/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈtɛɹəbl̩]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɛɹɪbəl/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈtɛɹɪbl̩]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation

  1. In a terrible way; to a terrible extent; terribly; awfully.

    colloquial · dialectal
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.