Meaning & use
horrific
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
So shocking, violent or frightening that it fills people with horror.
Grammar: Goes before a noun (a horrific crash) or after be (the scene was horrific); more horrific is common.
Patterns
- a horrific accident
- horrific injuries
- it is horrific to think
Rescuers described a horrific scene after the bus overturned.
The film contains horrific images that some viewers may find upsetting.
Survivors spoke of the horrific conditions in the camp.
adjectivecomparableinformal
Extremely bad or unpleasant, used loosely for something that is simply awful rather than truly terrible.
Grammar: A casual exaggeration; for everyday annoyances, many writers prefer awful.
Patterns
- absolutely horrific
- horrific weather
The traffic on Friday was absolutely horrific.
I had a horrific night's sleep before the exam.
The hotel's food was horrific, so we ate out.
Word forms
| comparative | more horrific |
|---|---|
| superlative | most horrific |
Common combinations
- horrific accident
- A horrific accident closed the motorway for hours.
- horrific injuries
- The driver suffered horrific injuries but survived.
- horrific crime
- Neighbors could not believe such a horrific crime had happened nearby.
- horrific scenes
- Reporters filmed horrific scenes after the flood.
- absolutely horrific
- The conditions were absolutely horrific.
Synonyms and how they differ
- horrifying
- Horrifying focuses on the shock you feel as you watch or hear it, while horrific describes the quality of the event itself.
- appalling
- Appalling stresses moral outrage or very poor quality, and can describe bad service as easily as violence.
- gruesome
- Gruesome points to gory, physically disgusting detail, which horrific does not require.
- dreadful
- Dreadful is milder and used for ordinary badness, such as weather, so it is far less intense than horrific.
Opposites
Word family
- horror noun
- intense fear or shock
- horrify verb
- to shock someone deeply
- horrifying adjective
- causing horror
- horribly adverb
- in a way that causes horror, or very badly
- horrid adjective
- very unpleasant, often milder in tone
Commonly confused: horrific or terrific? horrific or horrible?
horrific vs terrific
Terrific now means excellent in casual speech, although it originally meant terrifying; horrific is never positive.
horrific vs horrible
Horrible is a general word for very unpleasant things, while horrific is stronger and tied to violence or shock.
Practice
News reports described the ____ injuries suffered by victims of the explosion.
Choose one answer.
Horrific fits serious, shocking injuries. Terrific now means excellent, so it would sound wrong, and the other two options do not match the tragic context.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “horrific”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.