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.

Terrible vs Worse - What's the difference?

terrible | worse |

As adjectives the difference between terrible and worse

is that terrible is dreadful; causing alarm and fear while worse is comparative of bad.

As an adverb worse is

comparative of badly pos=adverb.

As a verb worse is

to make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.

As a noun worse is

loss; disadvantage; defeat.

terrible

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Dreadful; causing alarm and fear.
  • Formidable, powerful.
  • * 1883: (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island)
  • and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog," and "real old salt," and such-like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.
  • Intense; extreme in degree or extent.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=18 citation , passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?}}
  • Unpleasant; disagreeable.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=To Edward […] he was terrible , nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.}}
  • Very bad; lousy.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 26, author=Tasha Robinson, work=The Onion AV Club
  • , title= Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits , passage=The openly ridiculous plot has The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) scheming to win the Pirate Of The Year competition, even though he’s a terrible pirate, far outclassed by rivals voiced by Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    worse

    English

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (bad)
  • Your exam results are worse than before.
    The harder you try, the worse you do.
  • More ill.
  • She was very ill last week but this week she’s worse .

    Derived terms

    * go from bad to worse * worse for wear

    Adverb

    (head)
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
  • (ill).
  • Less skillfully.
  • More severely or seriously.
  • (sentence adverb) Used to start a sentence describing something that is worse.
  • Verb

    (wors)
  • (obsolete) To make worse; to put at disadvantage; to discomfit.
  • * (rfdate) Milton.
  • Weapons more violent, when next we meet, / May serve to better us and worse our foes.

    Statistics

    *

    Noun

  • (obsolete) Loss; disadvantage; defeat.
  • * Bible, Kings xiv. 12
  • Judah was put to the worse before Israel.
  • That which is worse; something less good.
  • Do not think the worse of him for his enterprise.
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    *