Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Very great in size, extent, or amount.
  • adjective Very great in scope or import.
  • adjective Archaic Very wicked; heinous.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Deviating from or transgressing the usual measure or rule; abnormal.
  • Spreading or extending beyond certain limits; redundant.
  • Greatly surpassing the common measure; exceeding the usual size: as, enormous debts; a man of enormous size.
  • Extremely wicked; uncommonly atrocious: as, enormous crime or guilt.
  • Disordered; perverse.
  • Synonyms Enormous, Immense, Excessive, huge, vast, monstrous, prodigious, gigantic, immoderate, unwieldy. The first three words agree in expressing greatness, and the first two vastness; anything, however small, is excessive if for some special reason too great in amount. Literally, enormous is out of rule, out of proportion; immense, unmeasured, immeasurable; excessive, going beyond bounds, surpassing what is fit, right, tolerable, etc. Enormous is peculiarly applicable to magnitude, primarily physical, but also moral: as, enormous egotism; immense, to extent, quantity, and number: as, an immense national debt; immense folly; excessive, to degree: as, an excessive dose; an excessive opinion of one's own merits.
  • Villainous, Abominable, etc. (see nefarious); heinous, atrocious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Exceeding the usual rule, norm, or measure; out of due proportion; inordinate; abnormal.
  • adjective Exceedingly wicked; outrageous; atrocious; monstrous.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete Deviating from the norm; unusual, extraordinary.
  • adjective obsolete Exceedingly wicked; atrocious or outrageous.
  • adjective Extremely large; greatly exceeding the common size, extent, etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective extraordinarily large in size or extent or amount or power or degree

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin ēnormis, unusual, huge, monstrous : ē-, ex-, ex- + norma, norm; see gnō- in Indo-European roots. Sense 2, from Middle English enormious, from Latin ēnormis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ēnormis.

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