Choose the Right Synonym for grisly

ghastly, grisly, gruesome, macabre, lurid mean horrifying and repellent in appearance or aspect. ghastly suggests the terrifying aspects of corpses and ghosts. a ghastly accident grisly and gruesome suggest additionally the results of extreme violence or cruelty. an unusually grisly murder suffered a gruesome death macabre implies a morbid preoccupation with the physical aspects of death. a macabre tale of premature burial lurid adds to gruesome the suggestion of shuddering fascination with violent death and especially with murder. the lurid details of a crime

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An angry grizzly bear could certainly inspire fear, so grizzly and grisly must be related, right? Grizzly comes from the Middle English adjective grisel, meaning "gray." Like its close relative grizzled, grizzly means "sprinkled or streaked with gray." In other words, the grizzly bear got its name because the hairs of its brownish to buff coat usually have silver or pale tips, creating a grizzled effect, not because it causes terror. Grisly is related to Old English grislic, which comes from a verb meaning "to fear" and which gives grisly its "terrifying" sense.

Examples of grisly in a Sentence

The jurors saw grisly photos of the crime scene. recounted the visit to the murder scene in grisly detail

Recent Examples on the Web Gomez plays Mabel Mora, a girl who lives in the Upper West Side apartment where a grisly murder occurs. — Aimée Lutkin, ELLE, 8 May 2022 So, the conspiracy theory that compass malfunctions are behind the Triangle’s grisly history is easily debunked. — Ashley Stimpson, Popular Mechanics, 18 Apr. 2022 One artifact — a shard of his coffin — was seemingly plucked from Poe’s grisly imagination. — Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2022 Consider Théodore Géricault’s grisly painting, The Raft of the Medusa. — Anne Quito, Quartz, 10 Feb. 2022 The court ruled in the case of Lynn Benton, 59, who worked as the tiny police department’s spokesperson before he was arrested and charged in the grisly killing of his wife. — oregonlive, 9 Feb. 2022 Police made the grisly discovery near a trash bin at the back of the motel. — Sarah Nelson, The Courier-Journal, 6 Apr. 2022 Police made the grisly discovery near a trash bin at the back of the motel. — Sarah Nelson, USA TODAY, 5 Apr. 2022 Police made the grisly discovery near a trash bin at the back of the motel. — Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 5 Apr. 2022 See More

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