Definition of EGREGIOUS

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Egregious derives from the Latin word egregius, meaning "distinguished" or "eminent." In its earliest English uses, egregious was a compliment to someone who had a remarkably good quality that placed him or her eminently above others. That's how English philosopher and theorist Thomas Hobbes used it in flattering a colleague when he remarked, "I am not so egregious a mathematician as you are." Since Hobbes' day, however, the meaning of the word has become noticeably less complimentary, possibly as a result of ironic use of its original sense.

Examples of egregious in a Sentence

… the public perception is that too many corporate executives have committed egregious breaches of trust by cooking the books, shading the truth, and enriching themselves with huge stock-option profits while shareholders suffered breathtaking losses. — John A. Byrne et al., Business Week, 6 May 2002 History cannot be rewritten, but some of its more egregious errors can be corrected—at least in part, at least symbolically. … Or so assume a growing number of human-rights advocates. — Ellis Cose, Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2001 an egregious example of political bias the student's theme was marred by a number of egregious errors in spelling

Recent Examples on the Web

For heavy Alexa users, going through all of these commands to find egregious conversations to delete might be too much work. — Natt Garun, The Verge, "How to hear (and delete) every conversation your Amazon Alexa has recorded," 28 Feb. 2019 Unchecked and egregious overuse of those protections by the First Family, especially because American taxpayers foot the Secret Service’s bill. — Kaylen Ralph, Teen Vogue, "Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Are Spending Taxpayer Money on Security for Their Vacations," 14 Dec. 2018 The deceptive marketing of a dangerous procedure with no proven benefit...is egregious. — Elizabeth Siegel, Allure, "Vaginal Rejuvenation Is on the Rise, But the Results Often Don't Live Up to the Hype," 27 Mar. 2019 Although the cultural appropriation debate has been raging for years, some of the most egregious cases continue, such as the Halloween costumes that sexualize Native American women. — Nadra Nittle, Vox, "The cultural appropriation debate has changed. But is it for the better?," 18 Dec. 2018 Mental health has become the ultimate red herrng for Republicans who don’t want to talk about guns no matter who gets shot, or how bloody or egregious and avoidable the crime may have been. — Jason Johnson, The Root, "I Listened to Trump Pretend He Cares About School Shootings so You Don’t Have To," 15 Feb. 2018 But how could such egregious behavior — the kind he has been accused of — be seen as anything but single-minded? — Nicole Brodeur, The Seattle Times, "In the wake of the #MeToo movement, what has changed?," 14 Sep. 2018 The ads were so egregious that Google removed a number of them, as The Washington Post reported at the time. — Sarah Jones, The New Republic, "The Supreme Court will decide if crisis pregnancy centers can be deceptive about their services.," 20 Mar. 2018 More egregious, the authors, who note that Shchukin left almost nothing in the way of letters or diaries, speculatively attribute thoughts and emotions to him throughout. — E.a. Carmean Jr., WSJ, "‘The Collector’ Review: Before the Fall," 7 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'egregious.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.