different between horrendous vs fearful

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horrendus, future participle of horre? (“I dread”), +? -ous.

Pronunciation

• enPR: h?r?n'd?s, IPA^(key): /h????nd?s/
• Rhymes: -?nd?s

Adjective

horrendous (comparative more horrendous, superlative most horrendous)

1. Extremely bad; awful; terrible.

   There was horrendous carnage at the scene of the plane crash.

   My journey to work this morning was horrendous!

Synonyms

• awful, horrific, terrible, dreadful

Related terms

• horrible
• horrid
• horrific
• horrify
• horror

Translations

Trivia

One of four common words ending in -dous, which are hazardous, horrendous, stupendous, and tremendous.

References

English

Alternative forms

• fearefull (obsolete)
• fearfull (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear +? -ful.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??f?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??f?l/
• Rhymes: -???f?l
• Hyphenation: fear?ful

Adjective

fearful (comparative fearfuller or fearfuler or more fearful, superlative fearfullest or fearfulest or most fearful)

1. Frightening.
2. Tending to fear; timid.

   a fearful boy

3. (dated) Terrible; shockingly bad.
4. (now rare) Frightened; filled with terror.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:

     Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessant payns […]

Synonyms

• (frightened): frightened, timid, timorous
• See also Thesaurus:afraid and Thesaurus:cowardly

Translations

Adverb

fearful (comparative more fearful, superlative most fearful)

1. (dialect) Extremely; fearfully.

Further reading

• fearful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fearful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Lauffer