What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Gruesome vs Atrocious - What's the difference?

gruesome | atrocious | Related terms |

Gruesome is a related term of atrocious.


As adjectives the difference between gruesome and atrocious

is that gruesome is repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly while atrocious is frightful, evil, cruel or monstrous.

gruesome

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 6
  • In the middle of the floor lay a skeleton, every vestige of flesh gone from the bones to which still clung the mildewed and moldered remnants of what had once been clothing. Upon the bed lay a similar gruesome thing, but smaller, while in a tiny cradle near-by was a third, a wee mite of a skeleton.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=May 04 , title=Bin Laden was unarmed when shot dead citation , passage=Jay Carney said that the US was considering whether to release photos of bin Laden after he was killed on Sunday but that the photos were gruesome and could be inflammatory.}}

    atrocious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Frightful, evil, cruel or monstrous.
  • Offensive or heinous. (rfex)
  • Very bad; abominable or disgusting.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "atrocious" is often applied: crime, act, murder, condition, spelling, grammar.