morbid

[ mawr-bid ]

adjective

1. suggesting an unhealthy mental state or attitude; unwholesomely gloomy, sensitive, extreme, etc.:

   a morbid interest in death.

   Antonyms: cheerful

2. affected by, caused by, causing, or characteristic of disease.

   Synonyms: sickly, sick, unhealthy, diseased, unwholesome

   Antonyms: healthy

3. pertaining to diseased parts:

   morbid anatomy.

4. gruesome; grisly.

morbid

/ ˈmɔːbɪd /

adjective

1. having an unusual interest in death or unpleasant events
2. gruesome
3. relating to or characterized by disease; pathologic

   a morbid growth

Derived Forms

• ˈmorbidness, noun
• ˈmorbidly, adverb

Other Words From

• morbid·ly adverb
• morbid·ness noun
• pre·morbid adjective
• pre·morbid·ly adverb
• pre·morbid·ness noun
• un·morbid adjective
• un·morbid·ly adverb
• un·morbid·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of morbid¹

First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin morbidus “sickly,” from morb(us) “disease, sickness” + -idus -id ⁴

Word History and Origins

Origin of morbid¹

C17: from Latin morbidus sickly, from morbus illness

Example Sentences

It had deaths so dazzling and morbid, you couldn’t look away.

From The Daily Beast

We don’t necessarily think of ourselves as being morbid because of it.

From Science News

The tracking of these numbers feels like a morbid version of sports.

From Washington Post

Setting aside the morbid possibility of an even worse year in the near future making 2020 look comparatively mild, our collective memory of 2020 still may still be salvageable.

From Fortune

That mix of cute yet morbid is a defining feature of The Sims.

From Time

“I feel the almost morbid curiosity of the media as a weight on my back,” she said.

From The Daily Beast

The resultant pop culture is as morbid and contagious as the epidemics they depict.

From The Daily Beast

The business of writing obituaries may seem, at first glance, a morbid affair.

From The Daily Beast

Morbid Anatomy, with Ebenstein at the helm, seems to do it all, from publishing books to leading international trips.

From The Daily Beast

Entering Morbid Anatomy from an unremarkable, industrial street in Brooklyn, its ground-floor coffee shop/bookstore is buzzing.

From The Daily Beast

The story of this untoward event illustrates at once the morbid habit of his mind and the bitter passions of those times.

From Project Gutenberg

The subject has its weak side too; it is morbid and somewhat sentimental at the end, but the fundamental emotion is sincere.

From Project Gutenberg

Opium-smoking is a vice not only deleterious in itself, but one indulged in merely to satisfy a morbid craving.

From Project Gutenberg

Other phrases, of a morbid tenderness, seem like music whispering consolation for unavowed sorrows and irremediable despair.

From Project Gutenberg

One symptom of Tchaikovskys condition was the morbid sensibility of his artistic temperament.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ghastly
• ghoulish
• grim
• gruesome
• macabre
• melancholy
• pessimistic
• unnatural