Hideous

Podcast 1 · Introduction

Hideous

A documentary-style narration: origin, meaning, and feel.

Part of speech

adjective

Pronunciation

HID-ee-us  /ˈhɪdɪəs/

Definition

Extremely ugly; repulsive or horrifying in appearance; morally offensive or revolting; inspiring horror or disgust.

Plain meaning

Hideous means extremely ugly or repulsive — something that causes strong feelings of disgust or horror, either in appearance or in its moral nature. A hideous crime is one that is morally revolting. A hideous building is one that is strikingly ugly.

Register

Informal to literary. Hideous is used both in serious contexts — describing terrible crimes or disasters — and in casual hyperbole: hideous weather, hideous traffic. The word retains more force than simply ugly because of its historical association with horror and moral repulsiveness.