ENGLISH
REFERENCE

abhominable

adj.
C2 Proficiency ab·hom·inable Archaic

adj. extremely unpleasant or shocking. You use this to describe things that are so bad they make you feel sick or angry.

adj. causing extreme disgust or moral outrage; deeply offensive to the senses or conscience.


SIMPLE

The smell of the rotting garbage was abhominable.

CONTEXTUAL

The witness described the abhominable conditions in the prison where the prisoners were kept.

COMPLEX

The novel's protagonist is a man of abhominable character, whose deceitful nature eventually leads to the ruin of his entire family.

Origin

First attested in the 1300s, a variant of abominable, influenced by Latin ab + homine (“man”); compare abhominal. The unnecessary addition of h to words was once common; compare abholish (abolish). Abandoned by the 1600s. Compare also abhomination.

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