heinous
adjUK, US /ˈheɪnəs/ · UK /ˈhiːnəs/
Etymology From Middle English hainous, from Old French haïneus (compare French haineux) from haïr (“to hate”), hadir (“to hate”) (compare Old French en-hadir (“to become filled with hate”)), from Frankish *hattjan (“to hate”) (compare Middle English hetien). More at hate. The fluctuation between pronunciations with /eɪ/ and /iː/ is old; the former reflects adoption of an unmonophthongised pronunciation of Old French -ai-, while the latter reflects a monophthongised form.
1
Totally reprehensible.
- I hope they catch the person responsible for that heinous crime.
- The perpetrators of this heinous act must be brought to justice.
1 more example
- Perhaps burdened by the weight of history, talk of the heinous 2-2 draw in 2002, or the magnitude of the fixture, Scotland seemed spooked in the early throes.2021 October 12, Jamie Lyall, “Faroe Islands 0-1 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:
2
Bad, evil or villainous.
- Synonyms
- abominable, horrible, odious
- Antonyms
- unheinous
- Derived terms
- heinously, heinousness, unheinous
- Related terms
- hate