atrocious
7
7.6
- adjective
- /əˈtroʊʃəs/
- 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
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Watch on YouTubeIt 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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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After hearing the news, she could not believe that such atrocious acts could happen in her community.
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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
230
4.8
Very cruel and violent, causing pain or suffering
200
5.5
Causing great fear or shock
134
3.7
Very bad and unpleasant, often causing fear or shock
131
5.0
Very bad and morally wrong
103
4.5
Makes people feel very afraid and shocked
93
6.2
Shocking and unpleasant because it shows death or serious injury
84
5.6
Causing shock and strong disgust because it is very bad
82
9.0
Extremely cruel and shocking
79
7.0
Very shocking and scary, causing fear or disgust
63
4.5
Very bad and shocking, causing people to feel fear or sadness
58
1.1
Very frightening and causing fear or dread
47
4.1
A very unpleasant thing that shocks or disgusts you
44
7.1
Very bad in a moral way and deserving strong blame
41
6.8
Causing great fear and shock, often like death or ghosts
34
6.8
Very bad and unacceptable, deserving strong criticism
33
5.9
Very cruel and causing pain to people or animals
27
7.3
Very cruel and shocking, causing strong fear
27
6.1
Very unpleasant and painful, like being in hell
27
1.0
So frightening that people feel afraid
26
8.7
Strange and upsetting because it shows death or injury
25
7.9
Causing great pain or sorrow
17
5.1
Very scary and likely to make someone feel afraid
16
7.0
Very frightening and unpleasant, like a bad dream
6
8.5
Being very cruel and causing great pain
4
8.2
Very bad and unpleasant, of poor quality
1
9.9
A very wicked and criminal act that shocks people
1
9.9
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.