monstrous

[ mon-struhs ]

adjective

1. frightful or hideous, especially in appearance; extremely ugly.

   Synonyms: atrocious, horrible

2. shocking or revolting; outrageous:

   monstrous cruelty.

   Synonyms: atrocious, horrible

3. extraordinarily great; huge; immense:

   a monstrous building.

4. deviating grotesquely from the natural or normal form or type.
5. having the nature or appearance of a fabulous monster.

adverb

1. extremely; exceedingly; very.

monstrous

/ ˈmɒnstrəs /

adjective

1. abnormal, hideous, or unnatural in size, character, etc
2. (of plants and animals) abnormal in structure
3. outrageous, atrocious, or shocking

   it is monstrous how badly he is treated

4. huge

   a monstrous fire

5. of, relating to, or resembling a monster

Derived Forms

• ˈmonstrousness, noun
• ˈmonstrously, adverb

Other Words From

• monstrous·ly adverb
• monstrous·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of monstrous¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Latin word mōnstrōsus. See monster, -ous

Synonym Study

See gigantic.

Example Sentences

In a key scene it is established that once Caitlyn’s politics became monstrous, her personal life would inevitably follow.

From Salon

But there has undeniably been a recent movement among marginalized people to identify as monstrous—or at least to identify with the monstrous—as a way to celebrate stepping outside the borders of acceptability.

From Slate

Many popular and influential stories center the marginal figures who were previously banished to the monstrous borderlands—and some of them look back on the former center and go, “What the hell was happening there?”

From Slate

To call them weird, to banish them to the monstrous hinterlands, is to claw back the ability to define whether behavior is prosocial or antisocial, to determine what principles we should be conforming to.

From Slate

This is why, in addition to revisiting old stories to recontextualize the villainy of the monstrous characters, we’ve also increasingly seen new stories that show white supremacy, patriarchy, and other elements of the dominant culture as the monstrous figures they’ve really been all along.

From Slate

Related Words

• atrocious
• dreadful
• egregious
• freakish
• frightful
• grotesque
• gruesome
• heinous
• hideous
• horrendous
• horrible
• horrifying
• inhuman
• intolerable
• obscene
• odious
• outrageous
• preposterous
• terrible
• vicious