Awesome

How to spell awesome

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce awesome

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does awesome mean?

1. adjectiveExtremely impressive, excellent, or inspiring great admiration.

Awesome in a sentence

• The view from the summit was absolutely awesome.

• She did an awesome job organising the whole conference.

Where does awesome come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word is a native English formation built from the noun 'awe' and the old adjective-forming suffix '-some'. The 'awe' part traces back to the Old Norse word agi, meaning 'fear', 'terror' or 'dread', which reinforced a related Old English word ege of the same sense; in early use awe described the reverent fear felt before something vast or holy. The suffix '-some', as in 'handsome', 'troublesome' and 'wholesome', is a thoroughly Germanic ending meaning 'tending to' or 'full of'. Joined together around the late 1500s, 'awesome' first meant 'full of awe' or 'inspiring dread and reverence', a far heavier sense than today's casual use. Only in twentieth-century American slang did it soften into the everyday meaning 'excellent' or 'impressive', which then spread worldwide. The spelling trap is the silent finish: 'awe' keeps its 'e' but the join is 'awe' plus 'some', so it is easy to drop a letter and write the wrong vowels.

How the word is built

• awe (overwhelming wonder or dread)
• -some (adjective suffix meaning 'characterised by')