as in horrific
very bad or evil; deserving of hate or contempt
These murders were especially heinous. the heinous brutality of the attack
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of heinous
The shooting outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. is a heinous act of antisemitic murder and terrorism.
—
Anna Commander, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 May 2025
Their Christian work turns from mentoring teenage boys to working to lock up some of the same kids in heinous adult prisons.
—Katherine Corcoran, New York Times, 20 May 2025
Experts are quick to point out that trying to attach logic to heinous acts of violence is often an unsatisfying endeavor.
—Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 20 May 2025
Can the plaintiffs establish to the satisfaction of a jury that these platforms played an active or at least negligent role in this radicalization that culminated in this heinous event?
—New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for heinous
Anna Commander, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 May 2025
Their Christian work turns from mentoring teenage boys to working to lock up some of the same kids in heinous adult prisons.
—Katherine Corcoran, New York Times, 20 May 2025
Experts are quick to point out that trying to attach logic to heinous acts of violence is often an unsatisfying endeavor.
—Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 20 May 2025
Can the plaintiffs establish to the satisfaction of a jury that these platforms played an active or at least negligent role in this radicalization that culminated in this heinous event?
—New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for heinous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for heinous
Adjective
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The war has carried a horrific toll for Gazans, with many dead amid the fighting and whole neighborhoods razed to the ground.—
Shane Croucher,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 May 2025
-
Instead of just ending on that horrific moment, the show then cuts to Abby several days earlier.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2025
Adjective
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Larvae of the parasitic fly chew through flesh, transforming small nicks into big, gruesome wounds.—
Sarah Zhang,
The Atlantic,
27 May 2025
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The gruesome recovery comes in the wake of a gruesome February incident, when a body was found inside a suitcase floating in the East River.—
Nicholas Williams,
New York Daily News,
27 May 2025
Adjective
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But the defense is hoping to cast her recollections merely as sickening details in a deranged love story between two consenting and jealous adults.—
Anna Kaufman,
USA Today,
17 May 2025
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For years, raw sewage from Mexico has poured across the border into Southern California, fouling beaches, sickening residents and sparking diplomatic as well as environmental concerns.—
Joe Edwards,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 May 2025
Adjective
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Continuing a recent pattern of face-to-furniture collisions on the talk show, the 69-year-old's head made a momentous journey plummeting toward the program's storied table at the top of Tuesday's live broadcast, after panelist Joy Behar made a shocking joke about Sean Combs.—
Joey Nolfi Published,
EW.com,
3 June 2025
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The toll represented a shocking increase from the 20 deaths recorded in 2019.—
Lauren Villagran,
USA Today,
2 June 2025
Adjective
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Conrad wraps the conversation by being incredibly disgusting about Bella’s nether regions.—
Kimberly Roots,
TVLine,
1 June 2025
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For the next 200 years, snails only appeared in Parisian cookbooks alongside an apology for including such a disgusting ingredient.—
Garritt C. Van Dyk,
Smithsonian Magazine,
29 May 2025
Adjective
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Kids these days have attention spans crushed under the terrible weight of TikTok and Instgram.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
3 June 2025
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Heavy truck traffic has also contributed to terrible pollution in California’s Central Valley.—
Francine Kiefer,
Christian Science Monitor,
2 June 2025
Adjective
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Even with the horrible start the Red Sox still nearly came all the way back, twice drawing to within one run, but the club couldn’t get over the hump.—
Mac Cerullo,
Boston Herald,
3 June 2025
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Even on a horrible team, someone has to score, get rebounds and assists.—
Ira Winderman,
Sun Sentinel,
2 June 2025
Adjective
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Tech wealth here looks even less appealing than that of the Roy family (the expensively beige décor is even uglier).—
Kyle Chayka,
New Yorker,
4 June 2025
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During the negotiation of USMCA in 2018, the current trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada that Trump managed during his first term, conversations between the President and GM occasionally turned ugly.—
Jackie Charniga,
USA Today,
3 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Heinous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heinous. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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