grotesque
grotesque Lexical Profile
grotesque Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Comically or repulsively ugly, distorted, or misshapen in appearance or form.
"The old cathedral's roofline was lined with grotesque stone carvings that peered down at passersby."
Incongruous, bizarre, or absurd to a shocking or offensive degree.
"The report exposed a grotesque disparity between executive bonuses and the wages of entry-level workers."
• noun
A comically or repulsively distorted figure, creature, or design, especially an ornamental stone carving on a building that does not function as a waterspout.
"The tour guide explained that while gargoyles channel rainwater away from the walls, grotesques are purely decorative."
A decorative style of visual art and literature characterized by fantastical, exaggerated, or incongruously interwoven human, animal, and foliage forms.
"Flannery O'Connor's fiction is celebrated for its masterly use of the Southern gothic grotesque."
A family of nineteenth-century sans-serif typefaces characterized by relatively uniform stroke thickness and slightly irregular, sturdy proportions.
"The graphic designer selected a classic nineteenth-century grotesque for the museum exhibition's headlines."
• Rhymes for grotesque
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the mid-16th century from French 'grotesque', from Italian 'grottesco' ('of a cave'), derived from 'grotta' ('cave, grotto'). The term originally referred to intricate, fantastical Roman wall paintings and frescoes rediscovered in the underground ruins ('grotte') of Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea in Rome.