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For eons, humans have contrasted love with hate and good with evil, putting love and good on one side, and hate and evil on the other. The association of hate with evil is baked into the etymology of heinous, which English gained directly from Anglo-French in the 14th century with the meaning we still know today; its source is the Anglo-French noun haine, meaning “hate.” Haine in turn comes from a verb of Germanic origin, hair, also meaning “to hate.” (The similarity between this hair and the other hair is coincidental.) Chaucer’s poem “Troilus and Criseyde” provides an early example of heinous in English: “He rang them out a story like a bell, against her foe who was called Polyphete, so heinous that men might on it spit.”
Examples of heinous in a Sentence
Vibe, May 2001
The verdict … also defined rape for the first time as a crime against humanity, one of the most heinous crimes. The tribunal has previously tried cases involving rape, but defined the rape as torture.
—Marlise Simons, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2001
It's hard enough to figure out what a defendant was thinking when he committed the heinous and bizarre act that has made him a candidate for the insanity defense. And state of mind is what the insanity defense is all about.
—Laura Mansnerus, New York Times Book Review, 26 Oct. 1997
These murders were especially heinous.
people accused of committing heinous crimes
City News Service, Oc Register, 28 Mar. 2026
That 1968 Roman Polanski horror film casts a long shadow over They Will Kill You, which also involves unwitting victims, eccentric neighbors, heinous rituals, and hell’s landlord.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 Mar. 2026
While Brandon and Rosa Williams bear the ultimate responsibility for these heinous actions, there are, sadly, others to blame as well.
—Vaughan Bagley, Baltimore Sun, 22 Mar. 2026
The criminal actions of Peters, who was placed in a position of trust by voters, were heinous.
—Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 14 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for heinous
Cite this Entry
“Heinous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heinous. Accessed 31 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
heinous
adjective
Legal Definition
heinous
adjective
