as in horrific
very bad or evil; deserving of hate or contempt
These murders were especially heinous. the heinous brutality of the attack
Related Words
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Dissimilar Words
as in badness
the state or quality of being utterly evil
the heinousness of the Holocaust was only fully realized after the war
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of heinous
Brian Truitt, USA Today, 25 July 2025
No one expected their summer on the lush, serene banks of Crawford Pond, Maine, to be upended by a heinous killing.
—ABC News, 21 July 2025
The first season of Monster chronicled the exploits of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (played by Evan Peters), and season 3 will star Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein, the mass murderer whose heinous crimes inspired Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
—Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 28 July 2025
By threatening to throw Ukraine under the bus and gifting Russian leader Vladimir Putin with diplomatic cover for his heinous crimes.
—Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 28 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for heinous
Adjective
Thanos uses the collected stones for some brutally heinous shenanigans in one bonkers cliffhanger.
22.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 25 July 2025
No one expected their summer on the lush, serene banks of Crawford Pond, Maine, to be upended by a heinous killing.
—ABC News, 21 July 2025
The first season of Monster chronicled the exploits of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (played by Evan Peters), and season 3 will star Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein, the mass murderer whose heinous crimes inspired Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
—Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 28 July 2025
By threatening to throw Ukraine under the bus and gifting Russian leader Vladimir Putin with diplomatic cover for his heinous crimes.
—Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 28 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for heinous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for heinous
Adjective
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The Yogurt Shop Murders is based on a true story of a horrific crime back in 1991, one that many people may not have heard of.—
Paul Tassi,
Forbes.com,
7 Aug. 2025
-
The situation for the hostages is absolutely horrific as well.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
3 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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The gruesome deaths of the two beloved teens shook and forever changed the small Indiana community.—
Kristine Phillips,
IndyStar,
1 Aug. 2025
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The list includes redshirt junior nose tackle Jamari Lyons, back from a gruesome ankle injury, athletic 6-foot-2 ½, 244-pound sophomore linebacker Aaron Chiles and redshirt cornerback Cormani McClain.—
Edgar Thompson,
The Orlando Sentinel,
30 July 2025
Adjective
-
The brazen and aggressive manhandling of Senator Padilla by the Trump administration is a sickening disgrace.—
Emma Marsden,
MSNBC Newsweek,
13 June 2025
-
The practice is one of a sickening array of battlefield mistreatments recorded on video either by Ukrainian surveillance drones or Russian servicemen and then circulated on social media.—
Andrew Carey,
CNN Money,
28 July 2025
Noun
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Reports of state atrocities and abuses in Guatemala can be found in U.S. intelligence documents from the 1960s onward.—
Esther Brito Ruiz,
The Conversation,
7 Aug. 2025
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Moreover, summoning the horrors of October 7 only brings into sharper focus the scale of Israel's atrocities.—
Alia Brahimi,
MSNBC Newsweek,
31 July 2025
Adjective
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Perhaps the biggest moment was her shocking termination as principal, which not only upset her fictional colleagues but also viewers.—
Giana Levy,
Variety,
14 Aug. 2025
-
In a shocking turn of events, Weems is Wednesday’s new spirit guide, or figure from beyond death who will help Wednesday with her psychic visions.—
Dessi Gomez,
Deadline,
14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Kruse and her co-conspirators are now on their fourth different set of lawyers in this dispute, and this is a disgusting publicity stunt by new counsel, as evidenced by the fact that the complaint and press release were sent to the press before the complaint was served.—
Michaela Zee,
Variety,
13 Aug. 2025
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The series sets the various human and humanoid segments of its cast on a direct course with the distinctly inhuman alien flora and fauna on the ship – there are some inventive little monsters aboard, disgusting and harrowing in their own special ways – to great effect.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA Today,
12 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Whether your team is in the middle of a winning run or mired in terrible form, five minutes looking at the standings can convince you that a hundred different futures are possible.—
Anantaajith Raghuraman,
New York Times,
14 Aug. 2025
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While the latter is known for its legendarily terrible English localization, both of these were highly innovative horizontal scrolling shmups for their time.—
Ollie Barder,
Forbes.com,
14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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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
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The stories have overflowed with a horrible, glorious narrative abundance.—
Lyz Lenz,
Rolling Stone,
16 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Heinous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heinous. Accessed 22 Aug. 2025.
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