Synonyms of grotesquerie

grotesquerie

noun

grō-ˈte-skə-rē 

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

• monster
• grotesque
• demon
• ogre
• monstrosity
• Frankenstein
• terror
• fright
• horror
• abnormality
• abomination
• devil
• bugaboo
• incubus
• ogress
• bugbear
• mutant
• bogey
• mutation
• imp
• bête noire
• anathema
• banshee
• bogeyman
• freak
• fiend

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of grotesquerie

Platter can hardly go more than a few pages without noting one grotesquerie or another. — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026

The abundance of these grotesqueries was almost stranger than their existence. — Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 14 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