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awesome

adjective

  1. wonderful/excellent
  2. inspiring a sense of awe
L12235 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈɔː.səm/ / /ˈɔ.səm/ / /ˈɑ.səm/

adj

Etymology: 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.

  1. Causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement.

    The waterfall in the middle of the rainforest was an awesome sight.

    The tsunami was awesome in its destructive power.

  2. Excellent, exciting, remarkable.

    That was awesome!

    Awesome, dude!

noun

Etymology: 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.

  1. Clipping of awesomeness (“the quality, state, or essence of being awesome”).

    pure awesome

    made of awesome

  2. A person who is awesome.

    When an awesome is dreadful and making even the living of a common person miserable then someone from the community must stand up to resist the dreadful and check the excesses.

    “Or as I like to think of it, the wusses versus the awesomes.”