horrendous meaning

horrendous means extremely bad or unpleasant.

horrendous :

extremely bad, terrible

adjective

▪ The weather was horrendous yesterday.

▪ The weather was very bad yesterday.

▪ The accident caused horrendous damage.

▪ The accident caused terrible damage.

paraphrasing

▪ awful – extremely bad

▪ dreadful – very unpleasant

▪ terrible – extremely bad

▪ appalling – causing shock

horrendous

Pronunciation

horrendous [həˈrɛn.di.əs]

The stress is on the second syllable 'REN' and sounds like 'huh-REN-dee-uhs'.

Common phrases and grammar about horrendous

horrendous - Common meaning

adjective
extremely bad, terrible

Part of Speech Changes for "horrendous"

▪ horrendously (adverb) – in a horrendous way

▪ horrendousness (noun) – the quality of being horrendous

Common Expressions with "horrendous"

▪ horrendous weather – very bad weather

▪ horrendous accident – a terrible accident

▪ horrendous mistake – a very bad mistake

▪ horrendous conditions – extremely bad conditions

Important examples of horrendous in TOEIC

Vocabulary examples from the TOEIC test

In TOEIC vocabulary questions, horrendous is used to describe something extremely bad or unpleasant.

▪The project faced horrendous delays.
▪The project had very bad delays.

Example of a confusing word: tremendous (very great in amount or level)

▪The project faced tremendous delays.
▪The project had very great delays.
"Horrendous" means "extremely bad" or "unpleasant," often used to emphasize the severity of a negative situation. In the sentence "The project faced horrendous delays," it highlights the severity of the delays. "Tremendous," on the other hand, means "very great in amount or level" and is typically used to describe something positive or neutral, like "tremendous effort" or "tremendous success." While both words describe something significant, their connotations differ, making "tremendous" an inappropriate choice for describing negative delays. Thus, "horrendous" is the correct choice.

Grammar examples from the TOEIC test

In TOEIC grammar questions, 'horrendous' functions as an adjective to describe nouns.

▪They faced horrendous circumstances during the project.
▪They faced very bad circumstances during the project.

horrendous

Idioms and fixed expressions in TOEIC

horrendous weather

'very bad weather', used when talking about unfavorable conditions.

▪The forecast predicts horrendous weather for the weekend.
▪The forecast predicts very bad weather for the weekend.

turn a situation horrendous

means 'make a situation very bad'.

▪His actions turned the situation horrendous.
▪His actions made the situation very bad.

Differences between similar words and horrendous

horrendous

,

awful

differences

'horrendous' is stronger and more formal than 'awful'.

horrendous
▪The situation was horrendous.
▪The situation was awful.
awful
▪The situation was awful.
▪The situation was very bad.

horrendous

,

dreadful

differences

'horrendous' implies extreme badness, while 'dreadful' emphasizes causing fear or suffering.

horrendous
▪The accident was horrendous.
▪The accident caused great fear.
dreadful
▪The accident was dreadful.
▪The accident caused great fear.

Words with the same origin as horrendous

The origin of horrendous

'horrendous' comes from Latin 'horrendus', meaning 'causing horror'.

Word structure

It has the prefix 'hor-' (related to horror), root 'rend' (to cause), and suffix '-ous' (adjective), so 'horrendous' means 'causing horror'.

Words with the same origin

The root of 'horrendous' is 'horror'. Words with the same root include horror, horrify, horrific, and horrible.

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