Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness or outrageousness.
- noun A monstrous offense or evil; an outrage.
- noun Usage Problem Great size; immensity.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state or quality of being enormous, immoderate, or extreme; atrociousness; vastness: in a bad sense: as, the enormity of his offense.
- noun Enormousness; immensity: without derogatory implication.
- noun That which surpasses endurable limits, or is immoderate, extreme, or outrageous; a very grave offense against order, right, or decency; atrocious crime; an atrocity.
- noun Synonyms and Enormity, Enormousness. Enormousness is strictly limited to vastness in size; enormity, to vastness in atrocity, baseness, etc.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The state or quality of exceeding a measure or rule, or of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous.
- noun That which is enormous; especially, an exceeding offense against order, right, or decency; an atrocious crime; flagitious villainy; an atrocity.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the quality of being outrageous
- noun an act of extreme wickedness
- noun the quality of extreme wickedness
- noun vastness of size or extent
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word enormity.
Examples
-
He thanks many members of his campaign, along with his enormous army of volunteers, and he warns supporters about what he calls the enormity of the tasks at hand that now face the U.S.
-
Finally, and for the avoidance of doubt, the man who "misspoke" the word enormity is to be referred to as President-Elect Obama until his inauguration on 20 January.
-
But the greatest number of letters I've received, by far, have been about my seemingly criminal use of the word enormity to mean 'enormous'.
OUPblog 2009
-
Sullivan gets bonus points for employing the phrase "mindless Rovianism" and for using the word enormity properly.
verbatim 2008
-
Slavery I must condemn with my whole soul; but here I need only borrow the language of slaveholders; nor would it accord with my habits or my sense of justice to exhibit them as the impersonation of the institution -- Jefferson calls it the "enormity" -- which they cherish.
American Eloquence, Volume 2 Studies In American Political History (1896) Various 1899
-
Such is commonly the fate of temporary wit, levelled at some prevailing enormity, which is not of a general nature, but only subsists for a while.
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland Cibber, Theophilus, 1703-1758 1753
-
Such is commonly the fate of temporary wit, levelled at some prevailing enormity, which is not of a general nature, but only subsists for a while.
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume II Theophilus Cibber 1730
-
The former judge at India's top court, who was given the task on Dec. 9 and was to present a report within four weeks, said the "enormity" of the work led to the delay.
Ex-Judge Submits Report on India Telecom Allotment R. Jai Krishna 2011
-
"Showing others the weak points of Muslims" is a serious sin, an "enormity" according to the Sunni classic manual of Islamic Sacred Law, entitled Reliance of the Traveler.
Terry Kelhawk: What Underlies Reactions When Islam Is Insulted? 2010
-
The only thing that bugged me was his use of "enormity" for "immensity."
President-Elect Barack Obama's First Press Conference: Promises To "Act Swiftly" On Economy 2009
sera commented on the word enormity
1. The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness or outrageousness.
2. A monstrous offense or evil; an outrage.
USAGE NOTE (from the Free Dictionary):
"Enormity is frequently used to refer simply to the property of being great in size or extent, but many would prefer that enormousness (or a synonym such as immensity) be used for this general sense and that enormity be limited to situations that demand a negative moral judgment, as in Not until the war ended and journalists were able to enter Cambodia did the world really become aware of the enormity of Pol Pot's oppression. Fifty-nine percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of enormity as a synonym for immensity in the sentence At that point the engineers sat down to design an entirely new viaduct, apparently undaunted by the enormity of their task. This distinction between enormity and enormousness has not always existed historically, but nowadays many observe it. Writers who ignore the distinction, as in the enormity of the President's election victory or the enormity of her inheritance, may find that their words have cast unintended aspersions or evoked unexpected laughter."
August 13, 2007
iangilman commented on the word enormity
As seen in a Cracked's 9 Words That Don't Mean What You Think.
November 26, 2007
asativum commented on the word enormity
Barack Obama is an eloquent speaker, and no doubt politicians will study his cadence and delivery for years to come. But he misues enormity. See examples here.
November 8, 2008
rolig commented on the word enormity
I fear the battle to keep people from using "enormity" to mean (as one would logically expect) "the state of being enormous" is lost. That is an enormity we will just have to learn to live with.
November 8, 2008