murderous
mur·der·ous/ˈmɝdəɹəs/adjective
murderous is spelled M-U-R-D-E-R-O-U-S: 9 letters and 3 syllables (mur·der·ous). It appears 2.3 times per million words in written English, the 17,813th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, murderous means “Of, characterized by, or pertaining to murder or murderers” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in murderous?
| Letters | 9: M-U-R-D-E-R-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: mur·der·ous |
| In writing | 2.3 times per million words; the 17,813th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is murderous?
Murderous appears 2.3 times per million words in written English, the 17,813th 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 murderous?
- UK /ˈmɜːdəɹəs/
- UK /ˈmɜːdɹəs/
- US /ˈmɝdəɹəs/
Murderous has 3 syllables, split mur·der·ous in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-murderous.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of murderous
- more murderous comparative
- most murderous superlative
- murtherous
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does murderous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of, characterized by, or pertaining to murder or murderers.
- 2
Of a person: intending or likely to commit murder; bloodthirsty, homicidal.
murderous behaviour
- 3
Of an object: used to commit murder; capable of causing death; deadly, fatal.
- 4
Very difficult.
a murderous exam
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Murderous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense likely to commit murder – see also homicidal:
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 murderous come from?
From murder + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns denoting possession or presence of a quality).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).