Enormity

Quick meaning: Enormity is a noun meaning (uncountable) Deviation from moral normality; extreme wickedness, nefariousness, or cruelty.

Meaning

(uncountable) Deviation from moral normality; extreme wickedness, nefariousness, or cruelty.

More Meanings

1. (countable) A breach of law or morality; a transgression, an act of evil or wickedness.
2. (uncountable, sometimes proscribed) Great size; enormousness, hugeness, immenseness.
3. (obsolete) Deviation from what is normal or standard; irregularity, abnormality.

Example Sentences

Not until the war ended and journalists were able to enter Cambodia did the world really become aware of the enormity of Pol Pot’s oppression.

In 1650 Lieutenant William Jackson was in trouble for holding, among many other enormities, ‘community of all things’, including, apparently, wives.

But the enormity of Clement's vision of papal grandeur only became clear once the public rooms were completed during the years that immediately followed.

I had an obscure feeling that all was not over, and that he would still commit some signal crime, which by its enormity should almost efface the recollection of the past.

Word Forms

• enormities

Synonyms for enormity

Depending on context, synonyms include anomalousness, oddness, weirdness, atrociousness, depravity, immorality.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include outrageousness, severity, outrage, arduousness, arduous, depth.

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