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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
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 20 May 2026
At the same time, Clark and Vasquez, by recording their heinous act, may have been trying to create a vibe for their own digital communities on Discord, a chat service that has become popular with gamers and extremists.
—Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 20 May 2026
But wouldn’t unwarrantedly suspecting a partner, or a father, of such heinous crimes in fact be its own kind of monstrousness?
—Jessica Kiang, Variety, 15 May 2026
After it was revealed earlier this month that cops have been called to the home of former MLB pitcher Carl Pavano and his ex-wife nine times over the last two years, more heinous allegations against Pavano have emerged.
—Ryan Morik, FOXNews.com, 14 May 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 26 May. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
heinous
adjective
Legal Definition
heinous
adjective
