horrendous
/həˈɹɛndəs/adjective
horrendous is spelled H-O-R-R-E-N-D-O-U-S: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, horrendous means “Extremely bad; awful; terrible” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in horrendous?
| Letters | 10: H-O-R-R-E-N-D-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.7 times per million words; the 16,455th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is horrendous?
Horrendous appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce horrendous?
- /həˈɹɛndəs/
- /əˈɹɛndəs/
Horrendous has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-horrendous.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of horrendous
- more horrendous comparative
- most horrendous superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does horrendous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Extremely bad; awful; terrible.
There was horrendous carnage at the scene of the plane crash.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Horrendous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense extremely bad; awful; terrible:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | épouvantable |
| German | entsetzlich, horrend |
| Spanish | horrendo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does horrendous come from?
Borrowed from Latin horrendus, future passive participle (gerundive) of horreō (“to dread”) + -ous.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).