macabre
- 01 C1 Advanced
describes something that is dark and focused on death or the gruesome, often in a shocking way.
disturbing and horrifying because of involvement with or depiction of death and injury.
Simple“The old house had a macabre history that local people still talked about.”
In context“The museum's collection included several macabre artifacts from the plague years, designed to remind viewers of their own mortality.”
UsageOften used to describe art, stories, or a person's sense of humour.
Teacher's tipWhile it means 'scary', it specifically implies a fascination with the physical reality of death; it is more sophisticated than 'creepy'.
“Spooky sculptures that brood on death, if your day by the sea needs a macabre salting.”
Borrowed from French macabre, whose etymology is uncertain. Possibly from the term danse macabre, most commonly believed to be from corruption of the biblical name Maccabees; compare Latin Chorea Machabaeorum. Another theory derives the French term (through Spanish macabro) from Arabic مَقَابِر (maqābir, “cemeteries”), plural of مَقْبَرَة (maqbara) or مَقْبُرَة (maqbura).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.