tremendous

[trih-men-duh s] /trɪˈmɛn dəs/

adjective

extraordinarily great in size, amount, or intensity:

a tremendous ocean liner; tremendous talent.

extraordinary in excellence:

a tremendous movie.

dreadful or awful, as in character or effect; exciting fear; frightening; terrifying.

Origin

1625-35; < Latin tremendus dreadful, to be shaken by, equivalent to trem(ere) to shake, quake + -endus gerund suffix

Related forms

tremendously, adverb

tremendousness, noun

untremendous, adjective

untremendously, adverb

untremendousness, noun

Synonyms

1. See huge.

Examples from the web for tremendous

The rain is terrific for the weeds, which continue to pop up all over the test garden at a tremendous pace.
Mozzarella came to mind first, because it's so tremendous with ripe tomatoes and basil.
But to hold an egg that actually contains nascent life is quite another matter, a tremendous responsibility.
There is this tremendous sense of energy and ambition and idealism that the world and the future is theirs.
They also find tremendous delight in the leftover bones.
Looking up at the tremendous smokestack hanging out over them as the ship listed even farther only added to the terror.
Soon, volume increased at a tremendous rate, and machines to make envelopes were invented.
It was indeed a tremendous display of the power and might of fast-running, uncontrollable water.
But he stopped quickly when he felt a tremendous undertow swirling around his legs.
And books are a tremendous gift that keep giving for years.

British Dictionary definitions for tremendous

tremendous

/trɪˈmɛndəs/

adjective

vast; huge

(informal) very exciting or unusual

(informal) (intensifier): a tremendous help

(archaic) terrible or dreadful

Derived Forms

tremendously, adverb
tremendousness, noun

Word Origin

C17: from Latin tremendus terrible, literally: that is to be trembled at, from tremere to quake

Word Origin and History for tremendous

adj.

1630s, "awful, dreadful, terrible," from Latin tremendus "fearful, terrible," literally "to be trembled at," gerundive form of tremere "to tremble" (see tremble). Hyperbolic or intensive sense of "extraordinarily great or good, immense" is attested from 1812, paralleling semantic changes in terrific, terribly, awfully, etc.