awesome
awesome Lexical Profile
awesome Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Extremely good, enjoyable, or excellent (used primarily in informal contexts).
"She did an awesome job organizing the community charity event on such short notice."
Extremely impressive, daunting, or inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or reverential wonder.
"The hikers stood in silence, captivated by the awesome power of the cascading waterfall."
• interjection
Used as an exclamation to express enthusiastic approval, delight, or agreement.
"Awesome! I was hoping we would get tickets to the opening night performance."
Word Nuance & Usage
While originally denoting solemn reverence or even dread, 'awesome' is now overwhelmingly used in casual speech as a general term of praise; in formal writing, 'awe-inspiring' or 'formidable' is often preferred to avoid sounding overly colloquial.
• Rhymes for awesome
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the late 16th century, formed from the noun 'awe' (from Old Norse 'agi', meaning terror or dread) combined with the suffix '-some'. It originally meant 'filled with solemn reverence' before shifting to 'inspiring dread' and finally to its modern colloquial sense of 'excellent' in the late 20th century.