Terrific
adj ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Terrifying, causing terror; terrible; sublime, awe-inspiring. archaic
"[T]he diſmal ſhrieks of demoniac rage […] rouſed phantoms of horror in her mind, far more terrific than all that dreaming ſuperſtition ever drew."
- 2 Very strong or intense; excessive, tremendous.
"The car came round the bend at a terrific speed."
- 3 Extremely good; excellent, amazing.
"I say! She's a terrific tennis player."
- 1 causing extreme terror wordnet
- 2 very great or intense wordnet
- 3 extraordinarily good or great; used especially as intensifiers wordnet
Example
More examples"I hit on the terrific idea of cheating at cards by chance."
Etymology
From French terrifique, and its source, Latin terrificus (“terrifying”), from terrēre (“to frighten, terrify”) + -ficus, related to facere (“to make”). By surface analysis, terrify + -ic. The sense of excellent or amazing is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of terrifying. Compare similar semantic development in sick and wicked.
More for "terrific"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.