What does terrible mean?
Word: Terrible
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Terrible means very bad or unpleasant. It can also mean causing great fear.
Synonyms: awful, dreadful, horrible
Antonyms: excellent, pleasant
How do you spell terrible?
Syllables: ter - ri - ble
Tricky part: Two traps sit in this word: the middle has a double r, and the ending is ible, not able or ibel.
Watch out for: terribel, terribul, teribel
Memory tip: Think of a tiger's terrible roar: the rr in the middle growls the same way.
Terrible in a sentence
Example 1: We had terrible traffic on the way to the airport.
Example 2: Our team played a terrible match and lost by ten goals.
Example 3: The village was hit by a terrible storm last year.
Fun Fact
Terrible comes from the Latin terribilis, frightful. At first it meant causing terror; the weaker sense, very bad, as in terrible handwriting, came later.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
terrible
a) careless
b) boring
c) wonderful
d) nervous
Show answer
c) wonderful. Wonderful means very good, the opposite of terrible; nervous, careless and boring are other words altogether.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) disasterous
b) terrible
c) dredful
d) unplesant
Show answer
b) terrible. Dreadful keeps the ea of dread, unpleasant has the ea of pleasant and disastrous drops the e of disaster; terrible is right.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our class picnic was terrible because of the rain, but the sandwiches were delishus.
a) delishus
b) terrible
c) sandwiches
d) picnic
Show answer
a) delishus. Delicious has a c in the middle and ends in ious.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
bletirre
a) terribly
b) treble
c) terrier
d) terrible
Show answer
d) terrible. Terribly needs a y, treble leaves an r and an i spare, and terrier has no b or l; these eight letters make terrible.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What would leave a terrible smell in the kitchen?
a) a pot of fresh coffee
b) bread baking in the oven
c) a rotten egg in the bin
d) a bunch of jasmine
Show answer
c) a rotten egg in the bin
2. The milk tasted terrible. What was wrong with it?
a) it had gone sour
b) it was warm and frothy
c) it was sweet and creamy
d) it was fresh and cold
Show answer
a) it had gone sour
