atrocious
12
7.6
- adjective
- /əˈtroʊʃəs/
:
atroz
- It's really sad that somehow people within these religions are hiding behind it and committing such atrocious crimes.
- atrocious crimes
- atrocious acts
- the most atrocious
It is such an atrocious experience in one of these relationships.
- It is such an atrocious experience in one of these relationships.
- I've never seen a man beaten so badly, and I've seen a fair share of atrocious sights that would make most people's head spin.
- There's evil in the world when there's evil people in the world and evil people are going to do heinous and atrocious things.
- So yes, reckless language absolutely hurts people and we see that all the time in ways that I think are just atrocious.
- These are folks who are so kind and compassionate and sweet and mean no harm and are caught up in something abusive and atrocious.
- Like I never nobody was atrocious to me.
- It made it almost impossible for them to carry out those kind of atrocious kind of and criminal acts again.
Examples
-
But wait, you say; many UN member nations have atrocious women's rights records.
Blog text (25) -
Hundreds of inmates were used as human guinea pigs for atrocious medical experiments.
-
Most of us think it is disgusting and atrocious to put a dog on top of the car.
Blog text (22) -
The attacks were atrocious, but the actual attacks only lasted a couple of hours.
Blog text (30) -
It is such an atrocious experience in one of these relationships.
-
But some were moved to commit the most atrocious crimes, and in the end, everyone was traumatized.
Academic text (1997) -
The ship had just left Makassar for the isle of Timor when an atrocious drama completely changed the fate of its crew.
Fiction book (1990) -
The film received criticism for its atrocious portrayal of historical events.
-
After hearing the news, she could not believe that such atrocious acts could happen in her community.
-
The teacher described the student's essay as atrocious due to its numerous spelling and grammatical errors.
Synonyms
∞
1.5
Very bad or frightening in a way that makes you feel upset
658
1.0
So frightening that people feel afraid
229
4.8
Very cruel and violent, causing pain or suffering
179
5.5
Causing great fear or shock
157
5.0
Very bad and morally wrong
136
3.7
Very bad and unpleasant, often causing fear or shock
95
4.5
Makes people feel very afraid and shocked
92
9.0
Extremely cruel and shocking
90
6.2
Shocking and unpleasant because it shows death or serious injury
87
5.6
Causing shock and strong disgust because it is very bad
82
7.0
Very shocking and scary, causing fear or disgust
65
1.1
Very frightening and causing fear or dread
57
4.5
Very bad and shocking, causing people to feel fear or sadness
52
4.1
A very unpleasant thing that shocks or disgusts you
49
6.8
Causing great fear and shock, often like death or ghosts
38
6.8
Very bad and unacceptable, deserving strong criticism
37
5.9
Very cruel and causing pain to people or animals
28
6.1
Very unpleasant and painful, like being in hell
27
7.3
Very cruel and shocking, causing strong fear
26
7.9
Causing great pain or sorrow
17
7.0
Very frightening and unpleasant, like a bad dream
15
7.1
Very bad in a moral way and deserving strong blame
14
8.7
Strange and upsetting because it shows death or injury
6
5.1
Very scary and likely to make someone feel afraid
4
8.2
Very bad and unpleasant, of poor quality
3
8.5
Being very cruel and causing great pain
1
9.9
A very wicked and criminal act that shocks people
Very cruel and violent, causing many deaths
Antonyms
How Horrific
Surface Forms
Morphology
atrocious = atrocity (transparent) = atroc + ious
The adjective reflects the original sense of the stem (cruel, fierce) with the standard adjectival suffix '-ious', so the meaning 'extremely cruel or horrifying' is predictable from the base.
Etymology
Atrocious comes from the old Latin word atrox, which meant 'cruel' or 'fierce', and it is the same root as atrocity, a word for cruel acts. So when we call an action atrocious, we mean it is shockingly 'cruel' or horrifying.