| Library / English Dictionary |
TREMENDOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Extraordinarily large in size or extent or amount or power or degree
Example:
a plane took off with a tremendous noise
Synonyms:
enormous; tremendous
Classified under:
Similar:
big; large (above average in size or number or quantity or magnitude or extent)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Extraordinarily good or great; used especially as intensifiers
Example:
a tremendous achievement
Synonyms:
fantastic; grand; howling; marvellous; marvelous; rattling; terrific; tremendous; wonderful; wondrous
Classified under:
Similar:
extraordinary (beyond what is ordinary or usual; highly unusual or exceptional or remarkable)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact
Example:
spent a frightful amount of money
Synonyms:
awful; frightful; terrible; tremendous
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
extraordinary (beyond what is ordinary or usual; highly unusual or exceptional or remarkable)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Context examples:
Not that we would have endangered his safety by any tremendous weather—but only by a steady contrary wind, or a calm.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Though a few other primitive galaxies have been seen at this early epoch, they have essentially all looked like red dots, given their small size and tremendous distances.
(NASA's Great Observatories Team Up to Find Magnified and Stretched Image of Distant Galaxy, NASA)
The impact is tremendous,'' said Sparano, of Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
(Study: Many Breast Cancer Patients Can Skip Chemo, VOA)
I perceived, as the shape came nearer (sight tremendous and abhorred!) that it was the wretch whom I had created.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The next moment he had staggered back to his bed, exhausted and panting after his one tremendous outflame of energy.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The ground shook beneath his tremendous weight, and his gulpings of water resounded through the still night.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His whole body was gathered compactly together in the tremendous effort, the muscles writhing and knotting like live things under the silky fur.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
There were no trees, no shrubs, no grasses—naught but a tremendous and terrible desolation that sent fear swiftly dawning into his eyes.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
The torrent, swollen by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke from a burning house.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It is a most tremendous monster, like a great spider, with a body as big as an elephant and legs as long as a tree trunk.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
