heinous

Word family

• heinously
  adverbC2
• heinousness
  nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words describe acts that provoke moral outrage, but they differ in emphasis. Heinous stresses the shock and horror felt by those who learn of the act — it is the word a judge or journalist would choose for a crime that shakes the public conscience. Atrocious can describe both moral evil and terrible quality (an atrocious accent), making it broader and slightly less formal. Abominable foregrounds disgust and loathing; it often appears in religious or moral condemnation (an abominable sin). Monstrous highlights the inhuman scale of the cruelty — a monstrous act seems beyond what any person could do. Odious is the most personal of the group, stressing the intense hatred the act stirs in observers. A journalist might write 'a heinous crime that shocked the nation,' while a victim's family member might call the same act 'an odious assault.'

Common collocations

Etymology

Heinous entered English in the late 14th century from Old French haineus, meaning 'full of hatred,' derived from haine ('hatred'). The French word traces back to the Frankish verb *hatjan ('to hate'), which shares a common Germanic root with English hate. Originally describing a person's hateful disposition, by the 16th century the word had shifted to describe the act itself — the crime became heinous rather than the criminal.