Synonyms for hellish
- adjective
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Infernal — infernal, related or similar to hell
infernal, diabolical, fiendish, devilish, satanic, demonic, diabolic, unholy, black, stygian formal, demoniacal, vicious, ungodly, nefarious, demoniac, demonlike, fiendlike, demonish, helly dated
2. Nightmarish — causing great pain, discomfort or distress
nightmarish, horrible, atrocious, terrible, awful, unpleasant, beastly UK, execrable, monstrous, abominable, god-awful slang US
Definitions
- adj. 1
infernal, related or similar to hell.
- adj. 2
causing great pain, discomfort or distress.
I woke up from a hellish noise coming from the house next door.
Related words
- Word family
- hellishly hellishness hell
Example sentences
- infernal "It's a lie!" he shouted, "an infernal lie!"
- diabolical To err is human, but to persist is diabolical.
- devilish Why did Yuri decide to join this devilish trio?
- fiendish I have come to warn you of a fiendish plot.
- horrible Something horrible happened about three hours ago.
- nightmarish Bruno had a nightmarish story to tell.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| hellish | rising | |
| infernal | rising | |
| diabolical | rising | |
| devilish | rising | |
| fiendish | rising | |
| horrible | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 5 letters
- black1, awful2, helly
- 6 letters
- unholy3
- 7 letters
- vicious2, satanic3, demonic3, ungodly3, beastly2, stygian3
- 8 letters
- terrible3, horrible3, infernal3, devilish2, fiendish2, diabolic, demoniac, demonish
- 9 letters
- monstrous2, atrocious3, nefarious4, execrable4, demonlike, fiendlike
- 10 letters
- unpleasant3, diabolical5, abominable5, demoniacal
- 11 letters
- nightmarish3
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (awful2 = 2 syllables).