as in horrific
very bad or evil; deserving of hate or contempt
These murders were especially heinous. the heinous brutality of the attack
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Recent Examples of heinous
These are the moments that hit me, of the heinous memories and choices and consequences.
—
Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 8 Sep. 2025
These are the moments that hit me, of the heinous memories and choices and consequences.
—Gillian Telling, People.com, 2 Sep. 2025
But the morning attack at Minneapolis’ Annunciation Church seemed to plumb unusually heinous depths of cruelty, even as crimes driven by religious bias continue to rise.
—Marc Ramirez, USA Today, 29 Aug. 2025
That hideous incentive triggered My Lai and other similarly heinous attacks.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 29 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for heinous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for heinous
Adjective
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Ward's attorney, Joanna Green, acknowledged the horrific nature of the crimes but said Ward has expressed remorse for committing them.—
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The horrific attack this morning at a Dallas ICE facility was a targeted act of violence and hate.—
Adjective
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The crew have put two giant skeletons with their arms in the air like gruesome wacky waving inflatable tube men at the Farm's entrance to catch your eye and indicate where the spooky fun is at.—
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The fake blood trapped between the layers bursts out at the incision point, replicating in gruesome detail the sensation of real bleeding.—
Adjective
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To come in and have [designers] fight over my Polaroid would be so sickening, or even a judge on the show.—
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Man arrested for sickening act at Charlie Kirk memorial outside Turning Point HQ MAJOR HEADLINES PARTY POWERPLAY – Zohran Mamdani lands key endorsement in New York City mayoral race.—
Adjective
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Once Bledsoe received a clean bill of health, then-Patriots coach Bill Belichick made the shocking decision to stick with Brady as the starting quarterback.—
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Ironically enough, at this time a year ago, the Tigers were closing in on a shocking playoff berth after selling at the trade deadline and winning 31 of their last 44 games.—
Adjective
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Don’t notice all the ways humans are disgusting.—
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But this disgusting and hateful speech is still speech and is protected by our First Amendment.—
Adjective
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Our prayers are with the victims and their families during this terrible tragedy.—
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Rather, the wretched truth is a reminder that history’s wins are often, if not always, accompanied by terrible loss — that, sometimes, what was cast as victory may have actually been defeat.—
Adjective
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That sounds absolutely horrible.—
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Their ratings are also horrible.—
Adjective
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As if the Twins hadn’t experienced enough misery, September opened at home with an ugly, four-game sweep by the White Sox, who lost at least 100 games for the third year in a row.—
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When the Motion Picture Association of America joined the consortium, in 2014, the fight grew uglier.—
Cite this Entry
“Heinous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heinous. Accessed 1 Oct. 2025.
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