abysmal

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: a=bys=mal

CIDE DICTIONARY

abysmal, a. 

 Pertaining to, or resembling, an abyss; bottomless; unending; profound.  [1913 Webster]
"Geology gives one the same abysmal extent of time that astronomy does of space."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

abysmal, adj.
1 colloq. extremely bad (abysmal weather; the standard is abysmal).
2 profound, utter (abysmal ignorance).

Derivative

abysmally adv.

Etymology

archaic or poet. abysm = ABYSS, f. OF abi(s)me f. med.L abysmus

THESAURUS

abysmal

Atlantean, Brobdingnagian, Cyclopean, Gargantuan, Herculean, Homeric, abyssal, appalling, astronomic, awful, bottomless, cavernous, colossal, deep as hell, dreadful, elephantine, enormous, epic, fathomless, gaping, giant, giantlike, gigantic, heroic, huge, illimitable, immense, infinite, jumbo, mammoth, mighty, monster, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, plumbless, plunging, prodigious, profound, soundless, stupendous, terrible, titanic, towering, tremendous, unfathomable, unfathomed, unsounded, vast, without bottom, yawning

ROGET THESAURUS

abysmal

Depth

N depth, deepness, profundity, depression, hollow, pit, shaft, well, crater, gulf, bowels of the earth, botttomless pit, hell, soundings, depth of water, water, draught, submersion, plummet, sound, probe, sounding rod, sounding line, lead, bathymetry, sonar, side-looking sonar, bathometer, deep, deep seated, profound, sunk, buried, submerged, subaqueous, submarine, subterranean, subterraneous, subterrene, underground, bottomless, soundless, fathomless, unfathomed, unfathomable, abysmal, deep as a well, bathycolpian, benthal, benthopelagic, downreaching, yawning, knee deep, ankle deep, beyond one's depth, out of one's depth, over head and ears, mark twine, mark twain.