awesome
/ˈɔːsəm/ adjective, noun
Forms awesomer awesomest orsum
- adjective Causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement. “The waterfall in the middle of the rainforest was an awesome sight.”
- adjective (colloquial, Canada, US, Australia) Excellent, exciting, remarkable. “That was awesome!”
- noun (countable, informal) A person who is awesome.
Synonyms
awe-inspiring ace admirable amazing badass broyal bang on bang-up studly based beatific beneship bitching blissful bomb brilliant bully celestial cher choice awful awing
Antonyms
aweless horrible horrific terrible mediocre fail shit weaksauce
Etymology
From awe + -some; compare earlier awful and Middle English eiful (“inducing fright or terror, terrible”), from Old English eġeful (“fearful; inspiring awe”).
The oldest meaning of awesome is of “something which inspires awe”, but the word is now also a common colloquial expression. It was originally so used in the United States, where it had featured strikingly in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, as used by Japan's Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to describe the "awesome" industrial potential of the United States. Consequently, as the word popularly became an expression for anything superb, in its original meaning it has tended to be replaced by the related word, awe-inspiring.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “awesome”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details