as in horrible
of, resembling, or befitting hell
We've been having hellish weather lately. The battlefield was a hellish scene of death and destruction.
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Recent Examples of hellish
Once on the ground, Venera 8 lived for only 63 minutes, which is about what was expected given Venus’s hellish conditions.
—
Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 7 May 2025
The deportation of Venezuelan men to a hellish mega-prison in El Salvador, on the questionable suspicion of gang affiliations, based on the presence of tattoos: flowers, a soccer logo, an autism-awareness ribbon.
—Jia Tolentino, New Yorker, 3 May 2025
None of this — the Netflix exposé painting her childhood as hellish and her adolescence as haunted by the specter of a controlling, manipulative mother; the rabid backlash to it and endless coverage of it — is pushing Piper off social media.
—Fortesa Latifi, Rolling Stone, 1 May 2025
This theory dovetails neatly with several observations, including ones showing a roughly uniform distribution of Io’s volcanoes, which seem to be tapping the same omnipresent, hellish source of melt.
—Robin George Andrews, Quanta Magazine, 25 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hellish
Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 7 May 2025
The deportation of Venezuelan men to a hellish mega-prison in El Salvador, on the questionable suspicion of gang affiliations, based on the presence of tattoos: flowers, a soccer logo, an autism-awareness ribbon.
—Jia Tolentino, New Yorker, 3 May 2025
None of this — the Netflix exposé painting her childhood as hellish and her adolescence as haunted by the specter of a controlling, manipulative mother; the rabid backlash to it and endless coverage of it — is pushing Piper off social media.
—Fortesa Latifi, Rolling Stone, 1 May 2025
This theory dovetails neatly with several observations, including ones showing a roughly uniform distribution of Io’s volcanoes, which seem to be tapping the same omnipresent, hellish source of melt.
—Robin George Andrews, Quanta Magazine, 25 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hellish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hellish
Adjective
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Even with the horrible start the Red Sox still nearly came all the way back, twice drawing to within one run, but the club couldn’t get over the hump.—
Mac Cerullo,
Boston Herald,
3 June 2025
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We were made aware of this horrible activity by Priscilla Olivarez from ILRC, at our annual conference Convening 2025, held in San Antonio.—
Billal Rahman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
2 June 2025
Adjective
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Over the 18 games following a 21-run eruption against the historically awful Colorado Rockies, the Padres ranked last in the majors in OPS and third-to-last in runs per game.—
Dennis Lin,
New York Times,
2 June 2025
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The timing isn’t awful for SDFC, which doesn’t play its next league game until June 14 and expected Lozano to be absent possibly into early July on national-team duty.—
Mark Zeigler,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
31 May 2025
Adjective
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Instead, his ascension is directly attached to his ability to help rejuvenate a dreadful offense threatening to compromise a promising season.—
Vahe Gregorian,
Kansas City Star,
4 June 2025
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Then there’s the Ronny Simon story, in which his Miami Marlins teammates and coaches responded to his dreadful on-the-field miscues with a very public demonstration of sympathy, support and camaraderie.—
Michael Peregrine,
Forbes.com,
29 May 2025
Adjective
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There are no save-the-cat redemptions for a man who became famous for torturing, murdering and performing hideous experiments on countless Jews as part of a team of doctors overseeing medical services at Auschwitz-Birkenau.—
Jordan Mintzer,
HollywoodReporter,
20 May 2025
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But Eleanor has backed herself into an awful corner, and in some ways, so too has Johansson’s film, which is stuck trying to impart sage wisdom through the lens of a truly hideous (if well-meaning) lie.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
20 May 2025
Adjective
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But the defense is hoping to cast her recollections merely as sickening details in a deranged love story between two consenting and jealous adults.—
Anna Kaufman,
USA Today,
17 May 2025
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For years, raw sewage from Mexico has poured across the border into Southern California, fouling beaches, sickening residents and sparking diplomatic as well as environmental concerns.—
Joe Edwards,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 May 2025
Adjective
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Continuing a recent pattern of face-to-furniture collisions on the talk show, the 69-year-old's head made a momentous journey plummeting toward the program's storied table at the top of Tuesday's live broadcast, after panelist Joy Behar made a shocking joke about Sean Combs.—
Joey Nolfi Published,
EW.com,
3 June 2025
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The toll represented a shocking increase from the 20 deaths recorded in 2019.—
Lauren Villagran,
USA Today,
2 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hellish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hellish. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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