Etymology

atrocious

a·tro·cious
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Today it means: Frightful, evil, cruel, or monstrous. Full definition →

Latin atrōx
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromatrōx“cruel, fierce, frightful”
  2. English todayatrocious

From Latin atrōx (“cruel, fierce, frightful”) + -ious.

Words from the same roots

Latinatrōx all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.