Grotesque

//ɡɹoʊˈtɛsk// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A style of ornamentation characterized by fanciful combinations of intertwined forms. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of humans and animals interwoven with plants wordnet
  3. 3
    Anything grotesque. countable, uncountable

    "Obese and largely unintelligible, Don Vito represents a working-class white male grotesque, the picture of excess."

  4. 4
    A sans serif typeface. countable, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To make grotesque. transitive

    "Why, when I saw that bestiality— / So beyond all brute-beast imagining, / That when, to point the moral at the close, / Poor Salabaccho, just to show how fair / Was ‘Reconciliation,’ stripped her charms, / That exhibition simply bade us breathe, / Seemed something healthy and commendable / After obscenity grotesqued so much / It slunk away revolted at itself."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal, especially in a hideous way.

    "The chimney-piece was of party-coloured marble, covered with figures, some of whose faces were beautiful, but generally running off into those grotesque combinations which characterised the peculiar taste of their time."

  2. 2
    Disgusting or otherwise viscerally revolting.

    "Trump’s grotesque and incomprehensible fondness for Putin makes the details of any deal highly dangerous for Europe and the NATO alliance, founded to confront Russia."

  3. 3
    Sans serif.
Adjective
  1. 1
    distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous wordnet
  2. 2
    ludicrously odd wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
monstrousaberrantabnormalabsurdanomalousantic

Example

More examples

"They made huge, grotesque, yet beautiful poles of red cedar."

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek κρύπτω (krúptō) Ancient Greek κρυπτή (kruptḗ)bor. Latin crypta Italian grotta Proto-Indo-European *-iskos Proto-Germanic *-iskaz Proto-West Germanic *-iskbor. Vulgar Latin -iscus Italian -esco Italian grottescobor. Middle French grotesquebor. English grotesque Borrowed from Middle French grotesque, from Italian grottesco, from grotta (“cave”) + -esco (relational suffix). By surface analysis, grotto + -esque. Compare French grotesque, English grotto.

Related phrases

ero-gurosans serif

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.