abominable

C2 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /əˈbɑm.ə.nə.bl̩/ See IPA manual

Freq #20613

Meanings

1

adj
unequivocally detestable

Abominable treatment of prisoners.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · unequivocally detestable execrable

More bad atrocious damnable abhorrible unspeakable

Word family

Forms abominably

Derived forms abominablenessabominably

Related forms abominate abomination omen

Common collocations

abominable treatment Adjective + noun

Etymology

From Middle English abhomynable, from Old French abominable, from Late Latin abōminābilis (“deserving abhorrence”), from abōminor (“abhor, deprecate as an ill omen”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ōminor (“forebode, predict, presage”), from ōmen (“sign, token, omen”). Formerly erroneously folk-etymologized as deriving from Latin ab- + homo, literally "away from humankind," and therefore spelled abhominable, abhominal (Hence, Shakespeare puns on this when Hamlet speaks of incompetent actors that "imitate humanity abominably.")

abhomynable Middle English abominable Old French abōminābilis la-lat

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# abominable

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /əˈbɑm.ə.nə.bl̩/
**Frequency rank:** 20613

## Meanings
1. unequivocally detestable

## Examples
- Abominable treatment of prisoners.

## Synonyms
- execrable
- bad
- atrocious
- damnable
- abhorrible
- unspeakable

## Derived Forms
- abominableness
- abominably

## Related Forms
- abominate
- abomination
- omen

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: abhomynable
- Root: abominable
- Root: abōminābilis

## Etymology
From Middle English abhomynable, from Old French abominable, from Late Latin abōminābilis (“deserving abhorrence”), from abōminor (“abhor, deprecate as an ill omen”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ōminor (“forebode, predict, presage”), from ōmen (“sign, token, omen”). Formerly erroneously folk-etymologized as deriving from Latin ab- + homo, literally "away from humankind," and therefore spelled abhominable, abhominal (Hence, Shakespeare puns on this when Hamlet speaks of incompetent actors that "imitate humanity abominably.")

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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