Adjacent Words

Formidable definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FORM'IDABLE, a. [L. formidabilis, from formido, fear.]
Exciting fear or apprehension; impressing dread; adapted to excite fear and deter from approach, encounter or undertaking. It expresses less than terrible, terrific, tremendous, horrible, and frightful.
They seemed to fear the formidable sight.
I swell my preface into a volume, and make it formidable, when you see so many pages behind.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: extremely impressive in strength or excellence; "a formidable opponent"; "the challenge was formidable"; "had a formidable array of compositions to his credit"; "the formidable army of brains at the Prime Minister's disposal"
2: inspiring fear; "the formidable prospect of major surgery"; "a tougher and more redoubtable adversary than the heel- clicking, jackbooted fanatic"- G.H.Johnston; "something unnerving and prisonlike about high grey wall" [syn: formidable, redoubtable, unnerving]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin formidabilis, from formidare to fear, from formido terror, bogey; akin to Greek morm? bogey Date: 15th century 1. causing fear, dread, or apprehension <a formidable prospect> 2. having qualities that discourage approach or attack 3. tending to inspire awe or wonder ; impressive • formidability noun • formidableness noun • formidably adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

disp. adj. 1 inspiring fear or dread. 2 inspiring respect or awe. 3 likely to be hard to overcome, resist, or deal with. Derivatives: formidableness n. formidably adv. Etymology: F formidable or L formidabilis f. formidare fear

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Formidable For"mi*da*ble, a. [L. formidabilis, fr. formidare to fear, dread: cf. F. formidable.] Exciting fear or apprehension; impressing dread; adapted to excite fear and deter from approach, encounter, or undertaking; alarming. They seemed to fear the formodable sight. --Dryden. I swell my preface into a volume, and make it formidable, when you see so many pages behind. --Drydn. Syn: Dreadful; fearful; terrible; frightful; shocking; horrible; terrific; tremendous.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you describe something or someone as formidable, you mean that you feel slightly frightened by them because they are very great or impressive. We have a formidable task ahead of us... Marsalis has a formidable reputation in both jazz and classical music... ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Fearful, dreadful, terrible, redoubted, frightful, terrific, horrible, tremendous.

Moby Thesaurus

Herculean, abstruse, alarming, appalling, arduous, astonishing, astounding, awe-inspiring, awesome, awful, brutal, burdensome, challenging, complex, conspicuous, critical, daunting, delicate, demanding, difficile, difficult, dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, earnest, effortful, egregious, exacting, exceptional, extraordinary, fabulous, fantastic, fatal, fateful, fell, freaky, frightening, frightful, ghastly, ghoulish, grave, grim, grisly, gruesome, hairy, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought, heavy, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying, imposing, impressive, incredible, indomitable, intimidating, intricate, jawbreaking, knotted, knotty, labored, laborious, macabre, marked, marvelous, mean, menacing, mighty, mind-blowing, mind-boggling, morbid, no picnic, not easy, notable, noteworthy, noticeable, of mark, onerous, operose, outstanding, overwhelming, petrifying, portentous, powerful, prodigious, redoubtable, remarkable, rigorous, rough, rude, rugged, schrecklich, serious, set with thorns, severe, shocking, signal, sober, solemn, spiny, staggering, steep, strenuous, striking, superior, terrible, terrific, terrifying, thorny, ticklish, toilsome, tough, tremendous, tricky, unbelievable, uncommon, uphill, weighty, wicked, wonderful