different between terrific vs mammoth

English

Alternative forms

• terrifick (obsolete)

Etymology

From French terrifique, and its source, Latin terrificus (“terrifying”), from terrere (“to frighten, terrify”) + -ficus, from facere (“to make”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t????f?k/
• Rhymes: -?f?k

Adjective

terrific (comparative more terrific, superlative most terrific)

1. (now rare) Terrifying, causing terror; terrible; sublime, awe-inspiring. [from 17th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:frightening

   • 1796–7, Mary Wollstonecraft, The Wrongs of Woman, Oxford 2009, p. 83:

     [T]he dismal shrieks of demoniac rage […] roused phantoms of horror in her mind, far more terrific than all that dreaming superstition ever drew.

   • 1821, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer, volume 2, page 154:

     Think of wandering amid sepulchral ruins, of stumbling over the bones of the dead, of encountering what I cannot describe,—the horror of being among those who are neither the living or the dead;—those dark and shadowless things that sport themselves with the reliques of the dead, and feast and love amid corruption,—ghastly, mocking, and terrific.
2. Very strong or intense; excessive, tremendous. [from 18th c.]

   The car came round the bend at a terrific speed.

   I've got a terrific hangover this morning.
3. Extremely good; excellent, amazing. [from 19th c.]

   I say! She's a terrific tennis player.

Synonyms

• brilliant
• horrific

Related terms

• terrible
• terrify
• terrifying
• terror
• terrorist
• terrorize

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• ferritic

English

Etymology

From obsolete Russian ??????? (mámant), modern ??????? (mámont), probably from a Uralic language, such as Proto-Mansi *m???-o?t (“earth-horn”). Compare Northern Mansi ??? (m?, “earth”), ????? (?n?t, “horn”). Adjectival use was popularized in the early 1800s by references to the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese presented to American paleontologist and president Thomas Jefferson.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mæm??/

Noun

mammoth (plural mammoths)

1. Any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, of large, usually hairy, elephant-like mammals with long curved tusks and an inclined back, which became extinct with the last retreat of ice age glaciers during the late Pleistocene period, and are known from fossils, frozen carcasses, and Paleolithic cave paintings found in North America and Eurasia.
2. (obsolete) A mastodon.
3. (figuratively) Something very large of its kind.
   • 1973, Jeffrey Potter, Disaster by Oil (page 46)

     That is a lot of ship, about the the size of big tankers before they grew so rapidly to become supers, mammoths and oilbergs.

Translations

Descendants

• ? Arabic: ???????? (m?m??)
• ? Hebrew: ????????? (mamúta)
• ? Hindi: ???? (maimath)
• ? Japanese: ???? (manmosu)
• ? Khmer: ???????? (maammout)
• ? Korean: ??? (maemeodeu)
• ? Thai: ?????? (m?m-m???t)

Adjective

mammoth (comparative more mammoth, superlative most mammoth)

1. Comparable to a mammoth in its size; very large, huge, gigantic.
   • 1898, Guy Wetmore Carryl, The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull, in Fables for the Frivolous (With Apologies to La Fontaine),

     “Ha! ha!” he proudly cried, “a fig / For this, your mammoth torso! / Just watch me while I grow as big / As you—or even more so!”

   • 1999, Albert Isaac Slomovitz, The Fighting Rabbis: Jewish Military Chaplains and American History, New York University Press, page 103.

Synonyms

• (very large): colossal, enormous, gigantic, huge, titanic
• See also Thesaurus:gigantic

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• mammoth on Wikipedia.Wikipedia