awesome

Meaning

Adj

1. Causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement.
2. (Australia, Canada, US, colloquial) Excellent, exciting, remarkable.

Noun

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, slang, uncountable) Clipping of awesomeness (“the quality, state, or essence of being awesome”).
2. (countable, informal) A person who is awesome.

Synonyms

awe-inspiring

amazing

wonderful

formidable

gorgeous

terrific

awful

excellent

fantastic

terrible

fabulous

wondrous

astonishing

great

tremendous

fearful

😨

dreadful

outstanding

super

cool

🆒

august

awing

brilliant

swell

superb

terrifying

stupendous

glorious

startling

frightening

neat

radiant

magnificent

luxurious

marvellous

impressive

incredible

marvelous

redoubtable

wicked

stunning

fearsome

capital

fab

epic

icebox

horrifying

enormous

immense

breathtaking

Translations

magnifique

terrifiant

magnifico

impressionante

impressionant

Ehrfurcht gebietend

imponente

großartig

ehrfurchtgebietend

génial

επιβλητικός

impressionante

furchteinflößend

Furcht einflößend

fantastique

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɔː.səm/

Etymology

Cognate with Old English: eġeful

In summary

From awe + -some; compare earlier awful and Middle English eiful (“inducing fright or terror, terrible”), from Old English eġeful (“fearful; inspiring awe”).
The oldest meaning of awesome is of “something which inspires awe”, but the word is now also a common colloquial expression. It was originally so used in the United States, where it had featured strikingly in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, as used by Japan's Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to describe the "awesome" industrial potential of the United States. Consequently, as the word popularly became an expression for anything superb, in its original meaning it has tended to be replaced by the related word, awe-inspiring.