heinous

English

WOTD – 16 January 2010

Alternative forms

• hainous (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English heynous, from Anglo-Norman hainous, heinous (compare French haineux) from Old French haïr, hadir (“to hate”) (compare Old French en-hadir (“to become filled with hate”)), from Frankish *hattjan (“to hate”) (compare Middle English hetien). More at hate.

The fluctuation between pronunciations with /eɪ/ and /iː/ is old; the former reflects adoption of an unmonophthongised pronunciation of Old French -ai-, while the latter reflects a monophthongised form.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈheɪnəs/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhiːnəs/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Audio (Australia):

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• Rhymes: -eɪnəs

Adjective

heinous (comparative more heinous, superlative most heinous)

1. Totally reprehensible.

   I hope they catch the person responsible for that heinous crime.

   The perpetrators of this heinous act must be brought to justice.

   • 2021 October 12, Jamie Lyall, “Faroe Islands 0-1 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎^[4]:

     Perhaps burdened by the weight of history, talk of the heinous 2-2 draw in 2002, or the magnitude of the fixture, Scotland seemed spooked in the early throes.

2. Bad, evil or villainous.

Synonyms

• (totally reprehensible): abominable, horrible, odious

Antonyms

• unheinous (rare)

Derived terms

• heinously
• heinousness
• unheinous

Related terms

• hate

Collocations

with nouns

• heinous crime
• heinous act
• heinous sin
• heinous murder
• heinous offence

Translations

totally reprehensible — see also reprehensible,‎ atrocious,‎ cruel,‎ inhumane,‎ execrable,‎ evil,‎ odious,‎ abominable

• Armenian: զզվելի (hy) (zzveli), նողկալի (hy) (noġkali), գարշելի (hy) (garšeli), անպետք (hy) (anpetkʻ), սարսափելի (hy) (sarsapʻeli), զարհուրելի (hy) (zarhureli)
• Bulgarian: отвратителен (bg) (otvratitelen), гнусен (bg) (gnusen)
• Czech: ohavný, odporný (cs)
• Danish: afskyelig (da), frygtelig, grufuld, motbydelig
• Dutch: afschuwelijk (nl), afgrijselijk (nl), afschrikwekkend (nl), verschrikkelijk (nl), verwerpelijk (nl)
• Faroese: andstyggiligur
• Finnish: katala (fi), kauhea (fi), hirvittävä (fi)
• French: atroce (fr)
• Galician: atroz (gl)
• German: abscheulich (de), verabscheuungswürdig (de)
• Greek: στυγερός (el) m (stygerós), αποτρόπαιος (el) m (apotrópaios), απεχθής (el) m (apechthís), μισητός (el) m (misitós)
• Hungarian: förtelmes (hu), szörnyű (hu)
• Icelandic: viðbjóðslegur (is)
• Italian: efferato (it), abominevole (it), odioso (it)
• Kazakh: жексұрын (jeksurın), пасық (pasıq)
• Māori: whakarihariha, mōrihariha
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: avskyelig, motbydelig (no)

  Nynorsk: avskyeleg

• Portuguese: hediondo (pt)
• Russian: гну́сный (ru) (gnúsnyj), ме́рзкий (ru) (mérzkij), отврати́тельный (ru) (otvratítelʹnyj)
• Swedish: avskyvärd (sv), vedervärdig (sv), förfärlig (sv), ohygglig (sv), skändlig (sv)
• Tagalog: karumal-dumal
• Ukrainian: жахли́вий m (žaxlývyj), оги́дний (uk) m (ohýdnyj), мерзе́нний m (merzénnyj)

Anagrams

• in house, in-house, inhouse