1
as in loud
disagreeable to one's aesthetic or artistic sense
the gaudy, overdecorated interior of the gambling casino was just too grotesque for my taste
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in ugly
unpleasant to look at
that bloody Halloween mask is grotesque
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in monster
a strange or horrible and often frightening creature
a gallery of grotesques from some horror movie
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of grotesque
Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep. 2025
Barely any other media in recent times has given me an instant shock of glee or revulsion like this absurd anarcho-cartoon being stretched and squeezed to its most grotesque and wholesome clickbait limits.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 10 Sep. 2025
Darryn King, Forbes, 17 Jan. 2025
White specks on the horizon grew to surround us with grotesques of ice.
—Blair Braverman, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for grotesque
Adjective
Voldemort only appears in Rowling's novel as a grotesque face growing out of another character's head in that first book, and doesn't receive a full-bodied corporeal form until the climax of the fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
—Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep. 2025
Barely any other media in recent times has given me an instant shock of glee or revulsion like this absurd anarcho-cartoon being stretched and squeezed to its most grotesque and wholesome clickbait limits.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 10 Sep. 2025
Noun
His early short films, such as Six Men Getting Sick (1967) and The Grandmother (1970), showcased his talent for blending the grotesque with the beautiful, setting the stage for his groundbreaking debut feature, Eraserhead (1977).
—Darryn King, Forbes, 17 Jan. 2025
White specks on the horizon grew to surround us with grotesques of ice.
—Blair Braverman, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for grotesque
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grotesque
Adjective
-
Meet Nashville's new crime-fighting Clydesdale Metro Nashville mounted patrol officer Michael Douglas squeezed a three-foot-long rubber chicken, producing an increasingly louder and closer screeching sound to try and provoke a 1,700-pound Clydesdale named Ross.—
Laura L. Davis,
Nashville Tennessean,
6 Oct. 2025
-
At the same time, Mercury and Mars are activating your sector of expansion, meaning your inner philosopher is loud.—
Dossé-Via Trenou,
Refinery29,
5 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Lindell handles very ugly, difficult matchups and usually comes out on top, regardless of who he’s partnered with.—
Harman Dayal,
New York Times,
7 Oct. 2025
-
If the scoreline made for ugly reading, the performance wasn’t much better.—
Ben Church,
CNN Money,
6 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Their 7-3 win over the Cubs in Game 2 of the other NLDS matchup was powered solely by three monster home runs.—
Chris Branch,
New York Times,
7 Oct. 2025
-
Season 3 picks up with the Monster Association arc, as S-class heroes band together to rescue a hostage taken by monsters claiming affiliation with the villainous organization.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
7 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The triumphant narrative began to fray when exceedingly harsh lockdown measures could no longer contain the spread of the virus, and the staggering human cost in the name of protecting lives defied all logic.—
Yangyang Cheng,
NPR,
4 Oct. 2025
-
There are no easy fixes, so figuring out how to cushion the harsh impact will be the basis of negotiations with other parties in the Japanese legislature, the Diet.—
Jeff Kingston,
Time,
4 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The Jets did precious little against the hideous Dallas defense and, on the other side of the ball, allowed scoring drives of 90 and 91 yards.—
Ian O'Connor,
New York Times,
6 Oct. 2025
-
At the same time, such a transition as implied by the current crisis necessitates and implies a coming organizational shift in society, but that could either result in a hideous fascism or in something genuinely utopian.—
Ed Simon
September 24,
Literary Hub,
24 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
This is less a parody of Judd than a reckoning with flesh and other grotesqueries.—
Jerry Saltz,
Vulture,
19 Sep. 2025
-
The sandwich, featuring ground meat—generally beef—suspended in a thick, sweet tomatoey sauce, has become an avatar of the horrible school lunch, a cliché that tends to go along with hairnets, greasy aprons, and other elements of canteen grotesquerie.—
Helen Rosner,
New Yorker,
17 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
In one of many tonally jarring subplots, Vince works out a scam to burn down his dead mother’s house in Brooklyn to collect the insurance money with the help of a corrupt fire marshal.—
Andrew Bernard,
The Washington Examiner,
3 Oct. 2025
-
Only on particularly bumpy tarmac did the GTS-spec suspension become too jarring with the adaptive dampers stiffened up in sport mode, but switching them to normal offered the best of both worlds—excellent, composed body control and tuning that ironed out imperfections remarkably well.—
Peter Nelson,
Robb Report,
1 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Smears on non-sensor areas of the tiara are like bug debris on your hood, aesthetically unpleasing but not harmful.—
Eric Tegler,
Popular Mechanics,
1 Oct. 2019
-
His side's inability to finish off the game against Burnley on the other hand was very unpleasing.—
SI.com,
SI.com,
1 Feb. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Grotesque.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grotesque. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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