Meanings
plural terribilities
- uncountableusuallyThe quality of being terrible.
VVhen I deſcend into my ſelf, and contemplat my moſt terrible horrible terribility, I can hardly hold my ſelf vvithin my ſelf; […]
1653, James Howell, “The Oration of the Lord George Frederique, Baron of Limburg, and Hereditary Officer to the Sacred Roman Empire, and Allwayes Free. Against Spain.”, in A German Diet: Or, The Ballance of Europe, […], London: […] Humphrey Moseley, […], →OCLC, page 261 more example
What special affinities appeared to him to exist between the moon and woman? […] the terribility of her isolated dominant implacable resplendent propinquity: her omens of tempest and of calm: the stimulation of her light, her motion and her presence: the admonition of her craters, her arid seas, her silence: her splendour, when visible: her attraction, when invisible.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 17: Ithaca]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 654Synonyms: terribleness
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe quality of being terrible.
Origin
- Late Latinterribilitās
- Middle Frenchterribleté
- Middle Englishterryblete
- Englishterribility
From Middle English terryblete, from Middle French terribleté, terribilité and its etymon, Late Latin terribilitās.
More words from Middle English, Middle French, Late Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
terribility. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terribility
“terribility.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terribility. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “terribility,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terribility.
Source: terribility on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.