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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Recent Examples of heinous
There’s long been interest in those accused of heinous crimes — serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer famously received numerous letters from fans while incarcerated.
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Lorena O'Neil, Rolling Stone, 24 Nov. 2025
Members of the media should really stop and ask themselves why these people ran directly to the press and activists to make such heinous allegations, rather than report it to any law enforcement authorities.
—Anna Alejo, CBS News, 22 Nov. 2025
Bipartisan critics also blasted Saudi Arabia for the 2018 assassination of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and tied that heinous event directly to MBS.
—Dana L. Stroul, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 Nov. 2025
Hamas’s heinous attack came at a moment when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was politically vulnerable and facing serious corruption charges.
—Rebecca Lissner, Foreign Affairs, 14 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for heinous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for heinous
Adjective
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Wednesday afternoon, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting horrific.—
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From a horrific account of an asteroid hitting Earth to an evil AI computer capable of designing deadly activities, readers will face the dark and mysterious corners of the human experience.—
Adjective
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Peter offers her not only logic — a picture in which all the parts, however gruesome, fit together — but salvation.—
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The prosecution argued that being on drugs didn't excuse the gruesome attack.—
Adjective
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Jin Shin has come across some monster potholes over the last couple of weeks, including one in Koreatown that rattled his car with a sickening thump and another near the airport where its depth was obscured by water.—
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Oil is a 20th century energy source, outmoded and responsible for sickening and killing millions of people with the potential to kill millions more.—
Adjective
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The shocking decision sends ripples through the Washington program and the college football transfer portal.—
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There are some great twists and turns leading to a shocking but very satisfying ending.—
Adjective
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The medical ordeals are traumatic and disgusting, but fascinating and full of the quirks of modern life.—
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Having snow, slush, and (eventually) water all over my floors was a disgusting feeling.—
Adjective
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Often the boarding school is a site for terrible trauma.—
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The family settled in the Chicago area during a terrible snowstorm, a shock to Noorani's parents, who came from the tropical Tanzanian island of Zanzibar.—
Adjective
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Are there horrible smells wafting around?—
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Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people.—
Adjective
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Not because the moms themselves are toxic people, but because the dynamic shifts into an ugly place with mean-girl behavior.—
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Many quite authentic Natives were targeted for banishment, and the ugly infighting their work inspired was covered widely—by the standards of Indian affairs—in the American media, which saw the battles as part of the larger identity wars raging across the nation in the new millennium.—
Cite this Entry
“Heinous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heinous. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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