Word Study
heinous
CIDE DICTIONARY
heinous, a. [OF. haïnos hateful, F. haineux, fr. OF. haïne hate, F. haine, fr. haïr to hate; of German origin. See Hate.].
Hateful; hatefully bad; flagrant; odious; atrocious; giving great offense; -- applied to deeds or to character. [1913 Webster]
"It were most heinous and accursed sacrilege." [1913 Webster]
"How heinous had the fact been, how deserving
Contempt!"
Contempt!"
Syn. -- Monstrous; flagrant; flagitious; atrocious.
OXFORD DICTIONARY
heinous, adj. (of a crime or criminal) utterly odious or wicked.
Derivative
heinously adv. heinousness n.
Etymology
ME f. OF ha{iuml}neus ult. f. ha{iuml}r to hate f. Frank.
THESAURUS
heinous
abhorrent, abject, abominable, arrant, atrocious, awful, bad, base, beastly, beggarly, below contempt, beneath contempt, black, blamable, blameworthy, brutal, cheesy, contemptible, criminal, crude, crummy, crying, damnable, dark, debased, degraded, deplorable, depraved, desperate, despicable, detestable, dire, dirty, disgraceful, disgusting, dreadful, egregious, enormous, evil, execrable, fetid, filthy, flagitious, flagrant, forbidding, foul, fulsome, grave, grievous, gross, hateful, horrible, horrid, ignoble, improper, infamous, iniquitous, knavish, lamentable, little, loathsome, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, malodorous, mangy, mean, measly, mephitic, miasmal, miasmic, miserable, monstrous, nasty, naughty, nauseating, nefarious, noisome, notorious, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, odious, offensive, outrageous, paltry, peccant, petty, pitiable, pitiful, poky, poor, rank, rebarbative, regrettable, repellent, reprehensible, reprobate, reptilian, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, rotten, sad, scabby, scandalous, schlock, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, shabby, shameful, shocking, shoddy, sickening, sinful, small, sordid, squalid, stinking, terrible, too bad, unclean, unforgivable, unmentionable, unpardonable, unspeakable, unworthy, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched, wrongROGET THESAURUS
heinous
Vice
N vice, evil-doing, evil courses, wrongdoing, wickedness, viciousness, iniquity, peccability, demerit, sin, Adam, old Adam, offending Adam, immorality, impropriety, indecorum, scandal, laxity, looseness of morals, enphagy, dophagy, exophagy, want of principle, want of ballast, obliquity, backsliding, infamy, demoralization, pravity, depravity, pollution, hardness of heart, brutality, corruption, knavery, profligacy, flagrancy, atrocity, cannibalism, lesbianism, Sadism, infirmity, weakness, weakness of the flesh, frailty, imperfection, error, weak side, foible, failing, failure, crying sin, besetting sin, defect, deficiency, cloven foot, lowest dregs of vice, sink of iniquity, Alsatian den, gusto picaresco, fault, crime, criminality, sinner, brothel, gambling house, joint, opium den, shooting gallery, crack house, vicious, sinful, sinning, wicked, iniquitous, immoral, unrighteous, wrong, criminal, naughty, incorrect, unduteous, undutiful, unprincipled, lawless, disorderly, contra bonos mores, indecorous, unseemly, improper, dissolute, profligate, scampish, unworthy, worthless, desertless, disgraceful, recreant, reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable, discreditable, disreputable, Sadistic, base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous, flagrant, flagitious, atrocious, incarnate, accursed, Mephistophelian, satanic, diabolic, hellish, infernal, stygian, fiendlike, hell-born, demoniacal, devilish, fiendish, miscreated, misbegotten, demoralized, corrupt, depraved, evil-minded, evil-disposed, ill-conditioned, malevolent, heartless, graceless, shameless, virtueless, abandoned, lost to virtue, unconscionable, sunk in iniquity, lost in iniquity, steeped in iniquity, incorrigible, irreclaimable, obdurate, reprobate, past praying for, culpable, reprehensible, unjustifiable, indefensible, inexcusable, inexpiable, unpardonable, irremissible, weak, frail, lax, infirm, imperfect, indiscrete, demoralizing, degrading, wrong, sinfully, without excuse, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, genus est mortis male vivere, mala mens malus animus, nemo repente fuit turpissimus, the trail of the serpent is over them all, to sanction vice and hunt decorum down.For further exploring for "heinous" in Webster Dictionary Online