Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Infernal |
InfernalAdjective1. Characteristic of or resembling hell; "infernal heat and noise". 2. Extremely evil or cruel; expressive of cruelty or befitting hell; "something demonic in him--something that could be cruel"; "fires lit up a diabolic scene"; "diabolical sorcerers under the influence of devils"; "a fiendish despot"; "hellish torture"; "infernal instruments of war"; "satanic cruelty"; "unholy grimaces". 3. Expletives used informally as intensifiers; "he's a blasted idiot"; "it's a blamed shame"; "a blame cold winter"; "not a blessed dime"; "I'll be damned (or blessed or darned or goddamned) if I'll do any such thing"; "he's a damn (or goddam or goddamned) fool"; "a deuced idiot"; "tired or his everlasting whimpering"; "an infernal nuisance". 4. Relating to or inhabiting hell; "his infernal majesty"; "infernal fires"; "infernal punishments". 5. Being of a lower world of the dead; "infernal regions". Noun1. An inhabitant of hell; "his roar made the infernals quake". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "infernal" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Infernal \In*fer"nal\, adjective. [French infernal, Latin infernalis, from infernus that which lies beneath, the lower. See Inferior.]. (references) |
Synonyms: InfernalSynonyms: blame (adj), blamed (adj), blasted (adj), blessed (adj), damn (adj), damned (adj), darned (adj), demonic (adj), deuced (adj), diabolic (adj), diabolical (adj), everlasting (adj), fiendish (adj), goddam (adj), goddamn (adj), goddamned (adj), hellish (adj), satanic (adj), unholy (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: supernal (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Arms | Gun, piece; firearms; artillery, ordnance; siege train, battering train; park, battery; cannon, gun of position, heavy gun, field piece, mortar, howitzer, carronade, culverin, basilisk; falconet, jingal, swivel, pederero, bouche a feu; petard, torpedo; mitrailleur, mitrailleuse; infernal machine; smooth bore, rifled cannon, Armstrong gun, Lancaster gun, Paixhan gun, Whitworth gun, Parrott gun, Krupp gun, Gatling gun, Maxim gun, machine gun; pompom; ten pounder. |
Hell | Adjective: hellish, infernal, stygian. |
Tartarus, Hades, Avernus, Styx, Stygian creek, pit of Acheron, Cocytus; infernal regions, inferno, shades below, realms of Pluto. | |
Inexpedience | Evil, wrong; depraved; shocking; reprehensible; (disapprove). hateful, hateful as a toad; abominable, detestable, execrable, cursed, accursed, confounded; damned, damnable; infernal; diabolic; (malevolent). |
Malevolence | Fiendish, fiendlike; demoniacal; diabolic, diabolical; devilish, infernal, hellish, Satanic; Tartaran. |
Satan | Adjective: satanic, diabolic, devilish; infernal, hellborn. |
Vice | Mephistophelian, satanic, diabolic, hellish, infernal, stygian, fiendlike, hell-born, demoniacal, devilish, fiendish. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Infernal |
| English words defined with "infernal": ambidextrous, Avernian ♦ blame, blamed, blasted, blessed ♦ damn, damned, darned, deceitful, Demonomagy, deuced, double-dealing, double-faced, double-tongued, duplicitous ♦ everlasting ♦ goddam, goddamn, goddamned ♦ Hellbroth, Hellkite ♦ Janus-faced ♦ Rhadamanthus ♦ Satanical, Subtartarean ♦ two-faced. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "infernal": Acherusia, Amaimon, Amsanctus, AVERNUS, Azazil ♦ Barabas, Black Ox ♦ Danaides ♦ Friar Rush ♦ Giall ♦ Horn-gate ♦ Infernal Column, Ixion ♦ Nastrond ♦ Salmoneus, Sansjoy, Sibyls ♦ TO CUT ♦ Utgard-Lok. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "infernal": Ogre. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Infernal" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (diabolical, fiend, hellish, infernal, mad), Portuguese (diabolic, diabolical, hellish, infernal, satanic, stygian, terrible), Romanian (devilish, diabolic, diabolical, hellish, infernal), Spanish (hellish, infernal, underworld). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | orchestra stop that infernal din. Please, no, I look at me, I must get back to Yeovil (School for Scoundrels; writing credit: Hal E. Chester; Patricia Moyes) Superca-- Super-- or whatever the infernal thing is. (Mary Poppins; writing credit: P.L. Travers; Bill Walsh) We shall proceed as planned and as soon as we return to 1985 we shall destroy this infernal machine (Back to the Future Part III; writing credit: Robert Zemeckis; Bob Gale) | |
Lyrics | Hear us, oh infernal master (One With Darkness; performing artist: Cher) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Le Trio infernal (1974) Infernal Street (1973) Furia infernal (1972) Melodrama infernal (1969) Cerebro infernal (1967) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
High Tech |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | You and your infernal stock market have hurt Italian progress terribly. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Ferro-Carril de Vera-Cruz a Mexico--In the Maltrata Mountains--Tunnel upon the infernal precipice / A. Briquet, fot. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Submarine Infernal machine intended to destroy the "Minnesota". Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Infernal machines discovered in the Potomac [near Aquia] Creek by the flotilla ... Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Cackle; cackling; evil; sinister; Mephistophelean; accursed; devil; cursed; damnable; damned; demoniac; demonic; detestable; diabolic; diabolical; execrable; fiendish; hellborn; hellish; hell; infernal; iniquitous; nefarious; satanic; serpentine; unhallow. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | There were men no longer in this now infernal conflict |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | He sacrifices not to Ceres and the Terrestrial Jove, but to the infernal Plutus rather |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | AVERNUS, n. The lake by which the ancients entered the infernal regions. The fact that access to the infernal regions was obtained by a lake is believed by the learned Marcus Ansello Scrutator to have suggested the Christian rite of baptism by immersion. This, however, has been shown by Lactantius to be an error. Facilis descensus Averni, The poet remarks; and the sense Of it is that when down-hill I turn I Will get more of punches than pence. Jehal Dai Lupe B |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Infernal" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Infernal" is used about 48 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 48 | 49,194 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "infernal": infernal machine ♦ infernal noise ♦ infernal region ♦ infernal regions ♦ Infernal stone. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "infernal"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i tmerrshëm (appalling, awesome, awful, Creese, damnable, darn, deadly, deuced, dire, direful, eldritch, enormous, frightful, gruesome, hideous, horrible, horrid, macabre, parlous, perishing, redoubtable, redoubted, sad, scary, terrible, terrific, towering, tragic, tremendous), skëterror (plutonic). (various references) | |
Arabic | جهنمي (hellish, stygian), شيطاني (demoniacal, demonic, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, hellish, impish, playful, satanic, serpentine, swinging, unholy). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | жесток (bestial, bloody, butcherly, cruel, dark, diabolic, diabolical, draconian, draconic, fell, ferocious, fiendish, fierce, ghoulish, grinding, harsh, ill, inhuman, inhumane, iron, mean, merciless, monstrous, outrageous, sanguinary, shrewd, slashing, truculent, unfeeling, unkind, unmerciful, unrelenting), адски (fiendish, hellish, infernally, plutonian, sulphurous, tartarean), пуст (bleak, desert, deserted, desolate, drear, empty, harsh, inane, inhospitable, uncouth, uninhabited, vacant, vain, waste, wild, yeasty), проклет (accursed, accurst, bad, blank, bleeding, bloody, cursed, cussed, damn, damned, deuced, dratted, ill natured, plaguy, ruddy, unblessed, wicked), дяволски (cursedly, demonic, deuced, deucedly, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, plaguy, tarnal). (various references) | |
Chinese | 地狱 (Hell, underworld), 地獄 (hell, underworld). (various references) | |
Czech | pekelný (hellish, ungodly, unholy), ïábelský (demoniacal, devilish, diabolic, fiendish, satanic). (various references) | |
Dutch | hels, duivels (demonic, devilish, diabolical). (various references) | |
Esperanto | infera. (various references) | |
Farsi | شیطان صفت (Devilish, Impish), شریر (Bad, Heinous, Naughty, Nefarious, Vicious, Villain, Villainous, Viper, Wicked), دیوصفت , دوزخی . (various references) | |
Finnish | helvetillinen (hellish). (various references) | |
French | infernal. (various references) | |
German | höllisch (fiendish, hellish, hellishly, infernally, purgatorial). (various references) | |
Greek | καταχθόνιοσ (hellish, stygian). (various references) | |
Hebrew | שט י (devilish, diabolic, fiendish, hellish, satanic), 'י" ומי (hellish). (various references) | |
Hungarian | pokoli (deuced, fiendish, hellish, helluva, stygian). (various references) | |
Italian | infernale (awful, devilish, hellish). (various references) | |
Manx | niurinagh (infernal spirit). (various references) | |
Norwegian | pokkers (confounded), helvetes, fordømt. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | infernalay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | infernal (diabolic, diabolical, hellish, satanic, stygian, terrible). (various references) | |
Romanian | infernal (devilish, diabolic, diabolical, hellish), drãcesc (devilish, diabolic, diabolical, satanic), diabolic (demoniac, demonic, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, diabolically, fiendish, hellish), de iad. (various references) | |
Russian | адский (damned, hellish, helluva, sulphurous, tartarean). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | paklen (devilish, hellish, tartarean). (various references) | |
Spanish | infernal (hellish, underworld). (various references) | |
Swedish | djävulsk (daemonic, demoniacal, demonic, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, hellish, satanic, satanical). (various references) | |
Turkish | iğrenç (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, cloying, crying, damn, damned, detestable, dirty, disgusting, distasteful, dread, dreadfull, execrable, filthy, foul, frightful, ghoulish, god-awful, grievous, hatable, hateable, hateful, heinous, hideous, horrible, horrid, loathsome, lousy, mangy, mawkish, nasty, nauseous, noisome, obnoxious, odious, offensive, putrid, rancid, rank, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, scummy, shocking, sick, sickening, sickly, slimy, squirmy, stinking, ugly, vile, villainous, yuck), cehennem gibi (hellish, scalding hot), cehennem (blazes, gehenna, Hades, hell, inferno, lower world, nether world, swelter, underworld), berbat (abominable, abysmal, accursed, accurst, appalling, atrocious, 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, ropy, rotten, screwed, shocking, sickening, spoilt, sticky, stinking, terrible, ungodly, unsavory, unsavoury, vicious, vile, villainous, violent, wretched), şeytani (demonic, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, satanic, unhallowed). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | страшенний (abysmal, almighty, arch-, blue, deuced, hideous, howling, precious, rabid, raging, right-down, terrible), проклятий (accursed, accurst, bloody, blushing, cursed, cussed, damned, something), пекельний (hellish, sulfurous, sulphurous). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | quả mìn g i bẫy (infernal machine), quả bom g i bẫy (infernal machine). (various references) | |
Welsh | uffernol (hellish). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | inferni, inferno, infernum, infernus. (various references) |
| Late Latin | 300-700 | infernalis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "infernal": infernally. (additional references) | |
| |
"Infernal" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Inderal, infenal, inferal, Inferni. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "infernal" (pronounced i'nfer"nul) |
| 4 | -er" n u l | Colonel, diurnal, eternal, external, fraternal, internal, journal, kernel, maternal, nocturnal, paternal, vernal. |
| 3 | -n u l | abdominal, aberrational, aboriginal, additional, adrenal, anal, annal, annul, Arsenal, atonal, attitudinal, autumnal, binational, biphenyl, cantonal, Cardinal, carnal, channel, coeducational, collisional, communal, compositional, computational, concessional, conditional, confessional, conformational, confrontational, congregational, congressional, connotational, constitutional, conventional, conversational, cornel, correctional, criminal, Darnel, delusional, denominational, departmental, depositional, devotional, diagonal, dimensional, directional, divisional, doctrinal, duodenal, dysfunctional, educational, emotional, empanel, erosional, exceptional, factional, faunal, fennel, fictional, final, flannel, fluxional, foundational, fractional, functional, funnel, gastrointestinal, generational, gravitational, hexagonal, hormonal, Hymnal, impanel, impersonal, improvisational, spinal, subliminal, superregional, supranational, terminal, informational, inspirational, institutional, instructional, intentional, intergenerational, international, interpersonal, intestinal, investigational, Invitational, irrational, jurisdictional, juvenile, kennel, latitudinal, longitudinal, luminal, marginal, medicinal, monoclonal, monsoonal, morainal, motivational, multinational, national, navigational, nominal, noncriminal, nonprofessional, nontraditional, nutritional, obsessional, occasional, occupational, octagonal, operational, optional, organizational, original, panel, penal, personal, phenomenal, polygonal, polyvinyl, processional, professional, promotional, proportional, provisional, rational, recreational, regional, relational, renal, representational, retinal, rotational, seasonal, sectional, semifinal, seminal, sensational, sentinel, shrapnel, signal, situational, tonal, traditional, transformational, transitional, transnational, tribunal, tunnel, unconditional, unconstitutional, unconventional, unemotional, unintentional, unprofessional, untraditional, vaginal, venal, Vinal, vinyl, virginal, vocational. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-f-i-l-n-n-r" | |
-2 letters: aliner, fainer, fanner, ferial, finale, inaner, infare, lanner, larine, linear, nailer, narine, renail. | |
-3 letters: afire, alien, aline, anile, ariel, elain, elfin, farle, feral, feria, filar, filer, final, finer, flair, flare, flier, frail, frena, inane, infer, infra, inner, learn, liane, lifer, linen, liner, renal, renin, rifle. | |
-4 letters: airn, alef, alif, anil, aril, earl, earn. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-f-i-l-n-n-r" | |
+2 letters: fingernail, infernally. | |
+3 letters: fingernails, franklinite, freelancing, inferential, infrangible, reinflating, reinflation, unfaltering. | |
+4 letters: conferential, franklinites, reinflations, unflattering. | |
+5 letters: inferentially, nonfilterable, nonrefillable, overinflating, overinflation, parainfluenza, ultrafeminine, underinflated, unfalteringly. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
