abysmal

/əˈbɪzməl/ Informal to Neutral

Say it: uh-BIZ-muhl

1. adjective Extremely bad; of a terrible and appalling standard.
The team's performance in the final was abysmal; they lost by 50 points.
2. adjective Relating to or resembling an abyss; immeasurably deep or vast.
He felt a sense of vertigo staring into the abysmal depths of the canyon.

📖 Seen in the wild

The team's performance was abysmal, leading to a crushing defeat.
collected by @vocablast

✏️ abysmal in a sentence

Despite the high budget, the film's reviews were abysmal.
The company's safety record is abysmal, with accidents reported almost weekly.
Honestly, my first attempt at making sourdough was an abysmal failure.
The level of political discourse has sunk to an abysmal low.
Living conditions in the refugee camp were described by aid workers as abysmal.
His ignorance of basic geography is simply abysmal.
The spacecraft sent back images of the planet's abysmal, lightless oceans.

🔁 Synonyms & antonyms

dreadful appalling atrocious terrible deplorable lousy awful horrendous

dreadful · suggests something that inspires dread or is extremely unpleasant.

appalling · implies shock, horror, or outrage at how bad something is.

atrocious · often implies extreme cruelty or shockingly poor taste and quality.

terrible · a very common and general term for something extremely bad.

Opposites: superb, excellent, outstanding, exemplary, splendid

🌱 Where it comes from

Abysmal comes from the noun 'abyss', which traces back to the Greek word 'abussos', meaning 'bottomless'. Originally, abysmal literally meant 'pertaining to the abyss' or 'bottomless'. By the late 19th century, it had developed its modern figurative sense of 'profoundly bad', as if something's quality were as low as the depths of a chasm.

🧩 How it's used

Common patterns:

abysmal failureabysmal performanceabysmal recordabysmal conditionsabysmal ignorance

Abysmal is a strong, emphatic word used to condemn something as a complete failure or of a shockingly low standard. While it can technically mean 'like an abyss', this usage is now rare and sounds literary or archaic. In modern English, reserve it for describing quality or performance, not physical depth, unless you are aiming for a poetic effect. Don't confuse it with 'dismal', which means gloomy and depressing rather than utterly terrible.

Word family: abyss, abysmally

💬 Quick answers

What does abysmal mean?

Abysmal almost always means extremely and hopelessly bad or appalling. In a much rarer, more literary sense, it can mean immeasurably deep, like an abyss.

Is 'abysmal' a strong word?

Yes, it is a very strong negative word. It describes a standard that is so low it's considered shocking or a total failure, far worse than just 'bad' or 'poor'.

What is the difference between abysmal and dismal?

Abysmal describes a catastrophic level of poor quality or failure. Dismal describes something that is gloomy, depressing, and bleak, like dismal weather or dismal job prospects.

Can something be 'abysmally good'?

No, this is a contradiction. Abysmal has an exclusively negative meaning. The adverb 'abysmally' can only modify negative concepts, such as 'abysmally low' or 'abysmally poor'.

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