terrible
adjective
Simple meaning
Very unpleasant; disagreeable.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehruhbuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛɹəbəl
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Very unpleasant; disagreeable.
Dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome
Very bad; lousy.
Intense; extreme in degree or extent.
Formidable, powerful.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome
Used this way, terrible is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Disagreeable or unpleasant.
Tricky; stressful; unpleasant.
Unpleasant, awful, very bad (also used as an intensifier).
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety.
Any of several usually small short-bodied breeds originally trained to hunt animals living underground.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A person whose unconventional behavior embarrasses others.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.