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Awful vs Unspeakable - What's the difference?

awful | unspeakable | Related terms |

Awful is a related term of unspeakable.


As adjectives the difference between awful and unspeakable

is that awful is oppressing with fear or horror; appalling, terrible while unspeakable is incapable of being spoken or uttered; unutterable; ineffable; inexpressible.

As an adverb awful

is (colloquial) very, extremely; as, an awful big house.

awful

English

Alternative forms

* awfull (archaic)

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling, terrible.
  • Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
  • *, I.56:
    • God ought not to be commixed in our actions, but with awful reverence, and an attention full of honour and respect.
  • * 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , II.143:
    • And then she stopped, and stood as if in awe / (For sleep is awful ).
  • Struck or filled with awe.
  • (obsolete) Terror-stricken.
  • Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding.
  • Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
    • an awful bonnet
    I have learnt an awful amount today.
  • Very bad.
    • My socks smell awful .

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "awful" is often applied: day, truth, time, place, moment, mess, night, news, state, situation, smell, thought, person, pain, movie, consequence, crime, fate, death, tragedy, man, event, disease, story, condition, mistake, taste, picture, year, calamity, doom, film, catastrophe, secret, performance, storm, end, week, shape, choice.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (colloquial) Very, extremely; as, an awful big house.

    • See also

    * awfully.

    External links

    * *

    unspeakable

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Incapable of being spoken or uttered; unutterable; ineffable; inexpressible.
  • * 1855-1882 , , book xv,
    • The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows.
  • Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
  • * 1916 , , A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man , ch. 3,
    • The miser will remember his hoard of gold, the robber his ill-gotten wealth, the angry and revengeful and merciless murderers their deeds of blood and violence in which they revelled, the impure and adulterous the unspeakable and filthy pleasures in which they delighted.
  • Extremely bad or objectionable.
    • an unspeakable fool
    an unspeakable play
  • * 1926 , ,
    • Yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * unspeakably * unspeakableness

    References

    * * * * " unspeakable" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002) * " unspeakable" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007) * * " unspeakable" at Rhymezone (Datamuse, 2006). * Oxford English Dictionary , second edition (1989) ----