awful

Adjective

• inspiring awe or admiration or wonder
  • New York is an amazing city
    
  • the Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring sight
    
  • the awesome complexity of the universe
    
  • this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath- Melville
    
  • Westminster Hall's awing majesty, so vast, so high, so silent
    

• extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact
  • in a frightful hurry
    
  • spent a frightful amount of money
    

• inspired by a feeling of fearful wonderment or reverence
  • awed by the silence
    
  • awful worshippers with bowed heads
    

• offensive or even (of persons) malicious
  • in a nasty mood
    
  • a nasty accident
    
  • a nasty shock
    
  • a nasty smell
    
  • a nasty trick to pull
    
  • Will he say nasty things at my funeral?- Ezra Pound
    

• causing fear or dread or terror
  • the awful war
    
  • an awful risk
    
  • dire news
    
  • a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked
    
  • the dread presence of the headmaster
    
  • polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was
    
  • a dreadful storm
    
  • a fearful howling
    
  • horrendous explosions shook the city
    
  • a terrible curse
    

• exceptionally bad or displeasing
  • atrocious taste
    
  • abominable workmanship
    
  • an awful voice
    
  • dreadful manners
    
  • a painful performance
    
  • terrible handwriting
    
  • an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room
    

Adverb

• used as intensifiers
  • terribly interesting
    
  • I'm awful sorry
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  amazing , awe-inspiring , awesome , awing , frightful , terrible , tremendous , awed , nasty , atrocious , abominable , dreadful , painful , unspeakable , terribly , awfully , frightfully