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Heinous vs Outrageous - What's the difference?

heinous | outrageous | Related terms |

Heinous is a related term of outrageous.


As adjectives the difference between heinous and outrageous

is that heinous is totally reprehensible while outrageous is cruel, violating morality or decency; provoking indignation or affront.

heinous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Totally reprehensible.
    • I hope they catch the person responsible for that heinous crime.
    The perpetrators of this heinous act must be brought to justice.
    The government denounced the attack as the most heinous of the last decade.
    Political Leaders from around the world have condemned these heinous acts.
    In our public services sorry seems to be the most heinous word.

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "heinous" is often applied: crime, act, sin, murder, offence.

    Synonyms

    * (totally reprehensible) abominable, horrible, odious

    Anagrams

    * English words not following the I before E except after C rule

    outrageous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Cruel, violating morality or decency; provoking indignation or affront.
  • * c. 1601 , (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet) , First Folio 1623:
    • To be, or not to be, that is the Question: / Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde to suffer / The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune, / Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them [...].
  • * 2011 , Paul Wilson, (The Guardian) , 19 Oct 2011:
    • The Irish-French rugby union whistler Alain Rolland was roundly condemned for his outrageous decision that lifting a player into the air then turning him over so he falls on his head or neck amounted to dangerous play.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.4:
    • For els my feeble vessell, crazd and crackt / Through thy strong buffets and outrageous blowes, / Cannot endure, but needes it must be wrackt [...].
  • Transgressing reasonable limits; extravagant, immoderate.
  • * 2004 , David Smith, , 19 Dec 2004:
    • Audience members praised McKellen, best known for Shakespearean roles and as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, for his show-stealing turn as Twankey in a series of outrageous glitzy dresses.
  • Shocking; exceeding conventional behaviour; provocative.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
    • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.}}
  • * 2001 , Imogen Tilden, (The Guardian) , 8 Dec 2001:
  • *:"It's something I really am quite nervous about," he admits, before adding, with relish: "You have to be a bit outrageous and challenging sometimes."

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