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Thursday, October 18, 2012

Alternatives for Awfully Awful


ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and moreAlternatives is a recurring post in which I give synonyms for an over used word. Click on the tab above for a "complete" list of over used words. 

Depending on how you use it, this list may come in handy for finding another way to say the same thing.

Today's word is Awfully/Awful.

Considering that awful means full of awe, inspiring I'll first give you a short list of  synonyms that are related to that meaning. Then we'll get into the good stuff. Those ugly, nasty, obnoxious words we all like to use.


amazing, astonishing, awesome
eye-opening,
fabulous,
miraculous,
portentous, prodigious,
staggering, stunning, stupendous, sublime, surprising,
wonderful, wondrous

Now for the good stuff.

"In that terrible fight to the death, I managed to stab the fearsome, nauseating, nightmarish, monster in the eye with my plastic bayonet. When its noxious acid blood spurted all over us, I thought we were goners. It was vile I tell you, vile."
Attack of the Crab Monsters

abhorrent, abominable, abysmal, alarming, appalling, atrocious

barbarous, blood-curdling, brackish

deplorable, depressing, despicable, detestable, dire, disgusting, distasteful, distressing, disturbing, dread, dreadful

evil

fearful, fearsome, forbidding, foul, frightful, from hell, fulsome

ghastly, ghoulish, godawful, grim, grisly, grody, gross, grotesque, gruesome,
grungy, gut-wrenching

hair-raising, harrowing, hateful, heart-stopping, heinous ,hellacious, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying

loathsome, lousy, lurid

macabre, miserable, monstrous

nasty, nauseating, nauseous, nightmarish, noisome, noxious

objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, odious, offensive, off-putting,
painful

rancid, raunchy, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, revolting

scandalous, scary, shake in one’s shoes, shake/tremble like a leaf, shocking, sick, sickening, sickish, sickly, stinking

terrible

ugly, uncivilized, undesirable, ungodly, unhealthy, unholy, unpleasant, unsavory, unsightly, unspeakable, unwanted, unwelcomed, unwholesome, upsetting

vile

Got a favorite awful word?

14 comments:

  1. Despicable is a favourite of mine, mainly when said by Daffy Duck.

    mood
    Moody Writing

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  2. Any word can become awful when overused, like hero and courageous when used about sports people.

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  3. Hi, Bish! Great post. Cool picture.

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  4. Awesome! Yes, I like that word.
    That photo is great.

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  5. I remember in the film version of Little Women, Beth chides Amy for using "awful" to mean "terrible," saying to her "don't use slang." I guess that means the meaning shifted from a good connotation to a bad one sometime in the 1860s.

    I love the word odious. Makes you think of a very, very, very bad smell.

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  6. That picture is so cute! Oh, that gives me ideas...

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  7. The photo is great!

    I don't have a favorite awful word, but Wow! That list! I'm a huge fan of the thesaurus when I can't find the word I'm looking for.

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  8. I really like the sound of 'obnoxious'

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  9. I love the word "macabre," but I don't use it a lot.

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  10. Great post! I never think of awful to mean something good- but it makes sense that it does. This list was excellent. I espceially like heinous and repugnant!

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  11. I like abysmal! Not if it's used about my writing though, haha. :)

    Hope you have a great weekend!

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  12. OMG this post is amazing. SO MANY WORDS. I am going to go to bed a happy girl tonight. Thank you. :)

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  13. This all is just facinating. Awfully facinating. :-)

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Your Random Thoughts are most welcome!