terrific
Adjective Satellite
- very great or intense
- "a terrific noise"
- "a terrific thunderstorm storm"
- "fought a terrific battle"
- extraordinarily good or great ; used especially as intensifiers
- causing extreme terror
Adj
- Terrifying, causing terror; terrible; sublime, awe-inspiring.
- Very strong or intense; excessive, tremendous.
- Extremely good; excellent, amazing.
Adjective
- Extremely good; excellent or wonderful.
Examples
- I say! She's a terrific tennis player.
- I've got a terrific hangover this morning.
- She made a terrific play, clearing her rack and landing a bingo.
- The car came round the bend at a terrific speed.
Origin / Etymology
From French terrifique, and its source, Latin terrificus (“terrifying”), from terrere (“to frighten, terrify”) + -ficus, from facere (“to make”).
The "excellent, amazing" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of "terrifying". Compare similar semantic development in sick and wicked.
Synonyms
fantastic, grand, howling, marvellous, marvelous, rattling, terrifying, tremendous, wonderful, wondrous, affreux, alarming, appalling, awful, brilliant, buggish, butt-clenching, buttock-clenching, dismayful, dreadful, fearful, flaysome, flesh-crawling, formidable, freaky, frightening, frightensome, frightful, ghastly, ghostly, grisly, hair-curling, hair-raising, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying, horripilating, pulse-pounding, scaring, scary, shocking, skin-crawling, terrible, terrorsome
Scrabble Score: 13
terrific: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordterrific: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
terrific: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary