1
as in horrific
extremely disturbing or repellent
an atrocious crime that shocked even hardened members of the police force
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in horrible
extremely unsatisfactory
the picture quality on the pirated DVD was atrocious
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in brutal
having or showing the desire to inflict severe pain and suffering on others
the atrocious treatment of prisoners at the camps
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of atrocious
The effort levels are atrocious.
—
Scott Thompson, FOXNews.com, 2 Sep. 2025
The writing is bewildering, the rhyme scheme atrocious.
—Sloane Crosley, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
The rare exception to this, in recent memory, is The Wheel Of Time, which got better each season and came out with a pretty great Season 3, whereupon Amazon cancelled it to keep the atrocious Rings Of Power alive.
—Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
This erasure, the novel seems to imply, is part of what allows Agu to perform atrocious acts of violence and murder.
—Katie Kitamura
august 21, Literary Hub, 21 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for atrocious
Scott Thompson, FOXNews.com, 2 Sep. 2025
The writing is bewildering, the rhyme scheme atrocious.
—Sloane Crosley, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
The rare exception to this, in recent memory, is The Wheel Of Time, which got better each season and came out with a pretty great Season 3, whereupon Amazon cancelled it to keep the atrocious Rings Of Power alive.
—Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
This erasure, the novel seems to imply, is part of what allows Agu to perform atrocious acts of violence and murder.
—Katie Kitamura
august 21, Literary Hub, 21 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for atrocious
Recent Examples of Synonyms for atrocious
Adjective
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Those bots have attracted lawsuits in horrific instances where users lost their grip on reality or took their own lives after interacting with them.—
Jim Edwards,
Fortune,
1 Oct. 2025
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Many of the base’s survivors have similarly described the singularly horrific nature of those 45 square miles in eastern Cuba.—
Miriam Pensack,
The Dial,
30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Miami could choose to move on from the star receiver due to the horrible season-ending injury.—
James Brizuela,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Sep. 2025
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Many of the game’s best teams spent the regular season alternating between brilliant and horrible.—
Levi Weaver,
New York Times,
30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The scene, which was not in Stephenie Meyer's 2008 book that the movie was adapted from, raised eyebrows for its brutal killings of vampires Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli) and Jasper Hale (Jackson Rathbone), as well as werewolves Seth (Booboo Stewart) and Leah Clearwater (Julia Jones).—
Jen Juneau,
PEOPLE,
2 Oct. 2025
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In a new era of Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders, the race to own Birmingham’s massive reconstruction project becomes a brutal contest of mythical dimensions.—
Etan Vlessing,
HollywoodReporter,
2 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Gein committed many gruesome crimes, but cannibalism was not one of them.—
Christopher Rudolph,
PEOPLE,
4 Oct. 2025
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But one photo, far less gruesome, has been gnawing at me for weeks.—
Ruth Margalit,
New Yorker,
4 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Our prayers are with the victims and their families during this terrible tragedy.—
Hollie Silverman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 Sep. 2025
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Rather, the wretched truth is a reminder that history’s wins are often, if not always, accompanied by terrible loss — that, sometimes, what was cast as victory may have actually been defeat.—
Andrea Williams,
Nashville Tennessean,
27 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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That’s actually the cruelest thing about them.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
3 Oct. 2025
-
The cold on August 27, 2011, was unprecedented—unbridled, utterly cruel.—
Mariana Enriquez
October 2,
Literary Hub,
2 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
That’s the most shocking thing.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
30 Sep. 2025
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As if that wasn’t enough motivation, the Horned Frogs (3-1, 0-1 Big 12) will face Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes (2-3, 0-2) for the first time since Sanders led the Buffs to a shocking 45-42 upset in Fort Worth to open the 2023 season.—
Steven Johnson,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Once the selloff happened, the Twins were destined to be awful for the final two months, all but sealing Baldelli’s fate.—
Aaron Gleeman,
New York Times,
1 Oct. 2025
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That’s the awful low; but Dunne’s story is ultimately one of redemption.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
30 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Atrocious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/atrocious. Accessed 5 Oct. 2025.
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