Atrocious

Definition: Atrocious

Atrocious

Adjective

1. Shockingly brutal or cruel; "murder is an atrocious crime"; "a grievous offense against morality"; "a grievous crime"; "no excess was too monstrous for them to commit".

2. Exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste"; "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room".

3. Provoking horror; "an atrocious automobile accident"; "a frightful crime of decapitation"; "an alarming, even horrifying, picture"; "war is beyond all words horrible"- Winston Churchill; "an ugly wound".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "atrocious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Etymology: Atrocious \A*tro"cious\, adjective. [Latin expression atrox, atrocis, cruel, fierce: compare to the French expression atroce.]. (references)

Synonyms: Atrocious

Malevolence

Cruel; brutal, brutish; savage, savage as a bear, savage as a tiger; ferine, ferocious; inhuman; barbarous, barbaric, semibarbaric, fell, untamed, tameless, truculent, incendiary; bloodthirsty; (murderous); atrocious; bloodyminded.

Vice

Base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous; flagrant, flagitious; atrocious, incarnate, accursed.

Crosswords: Atrocious

That's the same atrocious after shave you wore in court (Red Dragon; writing credit: Ted Tally)

For good luck, I like my rhymes atrocious (Play that funky music; performing artist: Vanilla Ice)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• A Slew of Stupid Criminals: Plus Some Spectacular Misspelling & Other Atrocious Crimes (reference)

• Atrocious American Articulations an Alliterated Alphabet (reference)

• Bennett Cerf's Treasury of Atrocious Puns (reference)

• Jokes: Outrageous Bits, Atrocious Puns and Ridiculous Routines for Those Who Love Jests (reference)

• The atrocious crime (of being a young man) (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expression using "atrocious": atrocious crime. Additional references.

Albanian

mizor (cruel, despiteful, draconian, draconic, ferocious, fiendish, inhuman, outrageous, pitiless, savage), i ndyrë (abject, bloody, contaminated, cotton-picking, crappy, dirty, filthy, foul, hoggish, horrid, lousy, low, low down, mangy, muddy, nasty, piggish, puddly, salacious, shut in, sordid, squalid, stained, stinking, vile, villainous), i egër (barbarous, bestial, cannibalic, cannibalish, cruel, despiteful, ferae naturae, feral, ferine, ferocious, fierce, furious, merciless, outrageous, rabid, savage, snappish, tigerish, tigrish, vicious, wild). (various references)

Arabic 

‏فظيع (abominable, detestable, flagrant, gross, hideous, horrible, horrid, monstrous, outrageous, shocking, terrible, ugly), ‏كريه (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, bad, brackish, cursed, detestable, disagreeable, distasteful, foul, frightful, hateful, horrible, loathsome, nasty, objectionable, odious, offensive, out of favor, out of favour, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, seamy, sickening, sour, ugly, unattractive, unpleasant, unwholesome, wicked), ‏وحشي (barbarian, barbarous, bestial, bloodthirsty, bloody, brutal, brute, brutish, cannibalistic, cruel, diabolic, diabolical, draconian, feral, fiendish, fierce, ill, inhuman, inhumane, insensate, remorseless, ruffian, savage, truculent, unfeeling, vicious, wanton, wild), ‏سفاح (bloodthirsty, gorilla, hoodlum, hooligan, killer, mug, slaughterer, thug), ‏شنيع (awful, crying, enormous, foul, ghastly, ghoulish, gruesome, heinous, hideous, monstrous, nefarious, obnoxious, outrageous, ugly), ‏بشع (grasping, grievous, gruesome, hideous, homely, horrid, shapeless, ugly, ungainly, unhandsome, unpleasant, unsightly). (various references)

Bulgarian 

отвратителен (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, awful, beastly, bestial, carrion, creepy, cursed, damnable, detestable, disgustful, disgusting, distasteful, execrable, foul, fulsome, gruesome, hateful, heinous, hideous, horrible, ill-favored, ill-favoured, infamous, loathsome, lousy, miserable, morbid, nasty, nauseous, noisome, odious, offensive, punk, putrid, rank, repellent, revolting, rotten, septic, shocking, sickening, ugly, unholy, unsavory, unsavoury, unspeakable, villainous, wicked), зверски (beastly, enormous, monstrous), брутален (brutal, rough, ruffianly). (various references)

Chinese 

惨酷. (various references)

Czech

ukrutný, sveřepý (truculent), příšerný (appalling, blinding, chronic, creepy, damnable, dreadful, excruciating, fearful, fiendish, ghastly, grisly, gruesome, horrendous, terrible, terrific, unholy, unspeakable, villainous, weird), otřesný (appalling, awful, fearful, fiendish, ghastly, harrowing, hateful, staggering, ugly, villainous), krutý (bitter, brutal, cruel, dispiteous, extreme, fierce, gory, grim, hard, harsh, heartless, heathenish, rigid, ruthless, savage, severe, torsion, unkind, unrelenting, vicious, wolfish), hrozný (abysmal, appalling, awful, damnable, dire, dreadful, excruciating, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightful, ghastly, grim, hateful, hellish, horrible, mortal, terrible, terrific, tremendous). (various references)

Farsi 

ستمگر (Cruel, Despot, Dispiteous, Oppressor, Tyrannous, Tyrant, Unjust), سبع (Brute, Ferocious, Fierce, Murderous, Savage, Truculent, Voracious, Wroth), بیرحم (Bloodthirsty, Cruel, Dispiteous, Relentless, Uncharitable, Unrelenting), باشرارت بی پایان . (various references)

French

atroce, assassin, affreux, horrible. (various references)

German

grauenhaft (barbarous, bloodcurdling, excruciating, forbidding, grimly, gruesome, harrowing, hideous, terrible, vicious). (various references)

Greek 

στυγερόσ (flagrant, heinous), μυσαρόσ (heinous), φρικτόσ (appalling, dire, direful, dismals, ghastly, gruesome, hideous, horrible), απαίσιος (appaling, awful, despicable, execrable, foul, horrible, nasty), αποκρουστικός. (various references)

Hebrew 

מתועב (abhorrent, abominable, execrable, ghoulish, heinous, hideous, infamous, repulsive, vile), מאוס (abominable, abomination, anathema, despicable, disgusting, foul, fulsome, loathsome, mangy, refuse, repulsive, repulsiveness), זועתי (frightful, grisly, horrible, horrific). (various references)

Hungarian

kegyetlen (bloody, brutal, brutish, cruel, dispiteous, felon, ferocious, grim, hard, heinous, inhuman, insensate, merciless, pitiless, ruthless, sanguinary, savage, scathing, tigerish, tyrannical), brutális (beastly, brutal, inhuman, ruffianly). (various references)

Italian

atroce (appalling, dire, dreadful, excruciating, flagitious, grievous, heinous, murderous, outrageous, savage, terrible), pessimo (abominable, terrible, very bad, wretched). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

無惨 (cruel, miserable, pitiful, tragic), 惨い (brutal, cruel, inhuman, merciless), 凶悪 (brutal, fiendish, villainous). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

きょうぼう (brutal, brutality, complicity, conspiracy, ferocious, frenzy, rage), きょうあく (brutal, fiendish, great treachery, very atrocious person, villainous), さ�"れつ (attendance, cruel, horrible, participation, presence), むざ�" (atrocity, cold-bloodedness, cruel, cruelty, miserable, pitiful, tragic), む�"い (brutal, cruel, inhuman, merciless), もうあく (ferocious, savage). (various references)

Korean 

흉포한. (various references)

Manx

eajee (filthy, ghastly, monstrous, odious). (various references)

Norwegian

fryktelig (dreadful, fearful, horrible). (various references)

Pig Latin

atrociousay.(various references)

Portuguese

atroz (grievous, heinous, merciless, racking), abominável (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, alien, awful, dismal, dreary, foul, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, nefarious, odious), desumano (fell, flint-hearted, flinty, hard-hearted, heartless, inhuman, inhumane, merciless, ruthless, soulless, unmerciful), cruel (barbaric, bitter, bloody, boarish, candle-wick, cruel, dark, fell, felon, fierce, grim, hard-hearted, heartless, inhuman, iron, merciless, pitiless, ruffian, ruthless, scathing, severe, shrewish, squint-eyed, tigerish, tigrish, truculent, uncharitable, unfeeling, unkind, unmerciful, wicked, wolfish), bestial (beastly, bestial, brutal, brutish, savage, sledge-hammer). (various references)

Romanian

atroce (atrociously, heinous, heinously, monstrous, outrageous), rãu (Amiss, awkward, awry, bad, bad for, bad-hearted, badly, baleful, black, bum, corrupt, depraved, evil, flagitious, foul, haggish, harm, ill, immoral, lousy, malefic, maleficent, malicious, malign, mischief, mischievous, miserable, naughty, perverse, rough, scoundrel, sickness, thin, unspeakable, useless, venomous, vicious, vile, wicked, wretched, wrong), grozav (a, almighty, awful, awfully, bally, beastly, bully, classy, clinking, Dandy, desperate, dreadful, exceedingly, excessively, famous, fell, first rate, formidable, frightful, gee, ghastly, grand, horrible, horrid, immense, immensely, jolly, killing, like blazes, like hell, lovely, mad, magnificent, mightily, nicely, nifty, plush, plushy, proper, ripping, some, stunning, swell, terrible, terribly, terrific, thundering, topping, tremendous, tremendously, uncommonly, vastly, whacking), fioros (dreadful, fell, ferocious, fierce, horrible, macabre, truculent), cumplit (cruel, dreadful, eerie, fell, ferocious, fierce, grievous, horrendous, mad, monstrous, outrageous, severe, terrible, utter, uttermost). (various references)

Russian 

зверский (brutal, brutish, effing, fiendish, lupine, monstrous). (various references)

Scottish

uamharr (dreadful, terrible). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

užasan (appalling, awful, dreadful, frightful, horrible, shocking, terrible), svirep (brutal, brute, cruel, farouche, ferocious, fierce, truculent), grozan (awful, creepy, dire, direful, ghastly, grisly, horrendous, lurid, macabre, plaguy, terrible). (various references)

Spanish

atroz (awful, black-hearted, crying, desperate, direful, heinous, lethal, outrageous, racking, raging, vicious), feroz (fell, ferocious, fierce, murderous, savage, tigerish, tigrish, wild). (various references)

Swedish

ryslig (dreadful, gruesome, horrible, horrific, plaguey, plaguy), gräslig (abysmal, awful, beastly, dire, dreadful, ghastly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, rible, terrible, ugly, unsightly, vile). (various references)

Thai

เลวมาก (nefarious), เหี้ยมโห�", อัปลักษ�"์. (various references)

Turkish

acımasızca (coldheartedly, hardly, in cold blood, insensibly, mercilessly, unmercifully), acımasız (brutal, coldhearted, cruel, cutthroat, dead, despot, ferocious, fiendish, flinty, grim, hard-hearted, harsh, implacable, inclement, inexorable, inhumane, merciless, outrageous, pitiless, relentless, ruthless, slashing, stern, truculent, tyrannic, tyrannical, tyrannous, unmerciful, unpitied, unrelenting, without remorse), zalim (arbitrary, bloody minded, brutal, cruel, cutthroat, daemon, demon, draconian, draconic, fell, felon, fiendish, flinty, grim, heavy, heavy-handed, ill natured, inhuman, miscreant, ogre, oppressive, oppressor, outrageous, persecutor, sanguinary, savage, stony, truculent, tyrannic, tyrannical), vahşice (barbarically, barbarously, savagely, wild), vahşi (barbarian, barbaric, brutal, brute, churlish, feral, ferocious, haggard, heathen, heathenish, rude, savage, tigerish, truculent, uncivilized, wild, wolfish), gaddarca (cruelly, inhumanly, tyrannic, tyrannical), gaddar (arbitrary, bloody minded, brutal, cruel, draconian, draconic, ferocious, grim, pedrifious), berbat biçimde, berbat (abominable, abysmal, accursed, accurst, appalling, awful, bad, badly, beastly, bum, chronic, crappy, dashed, destroyed, deuced, devilish, disgusting, dread, dreadfull, egregious, execrable, fierce, flagitious, frightful, ghastly, grotty, hell, hell of, helluva, horrible, horrid, indifferent, infamous, infernal, ropy, rotten, screwed, shocking, sickening, spoilt, sticky, stinking, terrible, ungodly, unsavory, unsavoury, vicious, vile, villainous, violent, wretched), çok kötü şekilde, çok kötü (arrant, awful, chronic, rotten, terrible, thumbs down, violent). (various references)

Ukrainian

огидний (abhorrent, abject, abominable, accursed, accurst, antipathetic, antipathetical, beastly, bilious, brackish, brutal, carrion, damnable, damned, detestable, disgusting, dreadful, evil, execrable, filthy, ghoulish, grim, hanging, heinous, hideous, horrible, horrid, ill-favored, ill-favoured, loathful, loathsome, mawkish, mucky, nasty, nauseating, nauseous, nefandous, noisome, obnoxious, obscene, odious, offensive, pesky, poisonous, putrid, rank, repellent, repulsive, revolting, shocking, snotty, sordid, sour, stinking, underfoot, wicked), мерзенний (abhorrent, abject, abominable, caitiff, ghoulish, hangdog, hateful, heinous, nasty, nefandous, nefarious, niddering, odious, sordid, villainous, wretched), звірячий (brute, cannibalish, lupine), жорстокий (barbarous, bloody minded, brutal, brute, brutish, cruel, cutthroat, despiteful, feral, ferocious, merciless, oppressive, outrageous, ruthless, stern, uncharitable), жахливий (abominable, abysmal, almighty, appalling, awesome, awful, blinking, blood-curdling, blue, chronic, damnable, damned, deadly, desperate, deuced, devilish, dire, direful, dreadful, eerie, eery, eldritch, enormous, fearful, fearsome, ferocious, flagrant, frightening, frightful, grievous, gruesome, horrible, horrific, iniquitous, macabre, monstrous, plaguy, scarey, scary, towering, tragic, tremendous, ungodly, wretched). (various references)

Vietnamese 

t�"i tệ (putrid), t� n bạo rất xấu, t� n ác (cruel, cruelly, foully, monstrous), hung bạo. (various references)

Welsh

anfad (nefarious, wicked), ysgeler (infamous, villainous, wicked), erchyll (hideous, horrible). (various references)

scelerate, sceleratiora, sceleratis, sceleratius. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "atrocious": atrociously, atrociousness, atrociousnesses. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Atrocious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: arocious, arteriosus, astrocious, astrovirus, atrocioux, atrocius, atroscious, atrosious, atroucious, attrocious, trocious. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: touracos.

-2 letters: carious, citrous, curiosa, octrois, outsoar, riotous, sautoir, surcoat, touraco, turacos.

-3 letters: actors, aorist, aortic, arioso, aristo, aurist, castor, citrus, coatis, coitus, costar, courts, crista, curios, octroi, racist, ratios, rictus, rustic, satori, scoria, scotia, scrota, souari, soucar, suitor, tarocs, torous, triacs, turaco, uratic.

-4 letters: actor, airts, arcus, ascot, astir, auric, auris, autos, carts.

+2 letters: atrociously, contrarious, coruscation, inoculators, obscuration.

+3 letters: coauthorship, conjurations, conquistador, continuators, conurbations, corrugations, coruscations, equivocators, obscurations, overcautions, overcautious, procurations.

+4 letters: atrociousness, autoeroticism, carcinomatous, coauthorships, communicators, compurgations, conquistadors, pococurantism, prosecutorial, proteinaceous, reoccupations, sociocultural.

+5 letters: autoeroticisms, claustrophobia, claustrophobic, commensuration, configurations, conquistadores, constructional, contradictious, cotransduction, counteractions, micropulsation, overeducations, oxidoreductase, pococurantisms, preoccupations, pronunciations, recomputations, reinoculations.