variants
also grotesquery
as in monster
a strange or horrible and often frightening creature
born Joseph Merrick, the so-called Elephant Man was for a time exhibited as a sideshow grotesquerie
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of grotesquerie
More pointedly, Norwegian filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt adds the grotesquerie of archaic beauty practices — both real and apocryphal — to create a feminist body-horror parable akin to last year’s The Substance.
—
Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025
The director’s lifelong interest in the tenderness and grotesquerie is immediately apparent and presented with the kind of frenzied confidence that continues to make del Toro’s work feel explosive even as studios have made his movies more expensive and polished.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 8 Dec. 2025
Coll’s early works, with their prickly eclecticism and their fondness for instrumental grotesquerie, reflect the influence of Adès and György Ligeti, among others.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025
Dreamy forests and bright angels curdle and mutate into digital grotesquerie, a Spam Folder of faceless creatures and shock shlock.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for grotesquerie
Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025
The director’s lifelong interest in the tenderness and grotesquerie is immediately apparent and presented with the kind of frenzied confidence that continues to make del Toro’s work feel explosive even as studios have made his movies more expensive and polished.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 8 Dec. 2025
Coll’s early works, with their prickly eclecticism and their fondness for instrumental grotesquerie, reflect the influence of Adès and György Ligeti, among others.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025
Dreamy forests and bright angels curdle and mutate into digital grotesquerie, a Spam Folder of faceless creatures and shock shlock.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for grotesquerie
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grotesquerie
Noun
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New Yorkers only just freed from the snow and ice left by January’s monster storm will once again face winter’s wrath.—
Jessica Schladebeck,
New York Daily News,
21 Feb. 2026
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If a monster is there, and the monster is those who escape justice or being held to account.—
Jazz Tangcay,
Variety,
21 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Indeed, compared with the realistically creased faces and hangdog stares of the Cubs, the Boston fans behind them are closer to grotesques, an inhuman crush of caricatures.—
Christopher Borrelli,
Chicago Tribune,
10 Feb. 2026
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Phillips rose to prominence in the ‘90s for glossy, photorealistic paintings like Below that grappled with sexuality, beauty and the grotesque.—
Uwa Ede-Osifo,
Dallas Morning News,
5 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Grotesquerie.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grotesquerie. Accessed 23 Feb. 2026.
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