VocabauraVOCABAURA

formidable

adjective

Simple meaning

Causing fear, dread, awe, or discouragement as a result of size, strength, or some other impressive feature.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fawrmuhduhbuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfɔɹmədəbəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Causing fear, dread, awe, or discouragement as a result of size, strength, or some other impressive feature; commanding respect; causing wonder or astonishment.

  2. Difficult to defeat or overcome.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Causing fear, dread, awe, or discouragement as a result of size, strength, or some other impressive feature; commanding respect; causing wonder or astonishment.

Used this way, formidable is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Everyday but emotionally strong

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “formidable”. We review each one before it appears.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: causing fear or dread or awe

redoubtableunnervingalarming

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Collections with this word

Themed sets you can browse for free.

Use it yourself

Knowing “formidable” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.