Meaning & use
Enormity
Last updated
The great or extreme scale, seriousness, or shocking nature of something, especially something bad; traditionally, extreme wickedness.
See it in a sentence
It took months for the town to grasp the enormity of the flood's destruction.
Historians still debate the enormity of the atrocities committed during the war.
A note on using this word
Traditional usage reserves 'enormity' for the scale of something morally shocking, while 'enormousness' is preferred for sheer physical size — though the two senses have blurred considerably in modern usage.
Words with a similar meaning
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
trivialityinsignificance
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