terrific
- 1Extremely good; excellent or amazing.
The new restaurant has gotten terrific reviews in its first month.
She did a terrific job organizing the fundraiser on such short notice.
Similarexcellent, great, fantastic, wonderful, superb
Oppositeterrible, awful, dreadful, poor
Note
Praise built on a word for fear: Latin terrificus meant "terrifying," from terrere, "to frighten," and the frightening meaning came first. Words of dread often turn into words of approval this way, and sick and wicked made the same climb. In practice the two rarely collide. A terrific tennis player or a terrific job is admired, never feared, so the context does the sorting.
- 2Very strong or intense; tremendous in force, speed, or degree.
The train was moving at terrific speed when it passed the station.
A terrific explosion shook windows across the entire neighborhood.
Similartremendous, enormous, great, huge, massive
Note
Here fear has faded into sheer size: a terrific speed, a terrific hangover, terrific haste. The word measures degree rather than quality, so it pairs easily with unpleasant nouns. Joseph Collyer's 1769 translation of The Messiah already speaks of 'terrific haste'. With a neutral noun such as cheers, only context shows whether it means loud or the approving 'excellent' sense.
- 3Causing terror; terrible or dreadful; sometimes sublime or awe-inspiring in its greatness.
Similarfrightening, horrifying, dreadful, alarming, horrific
Note
The original meaning, carried over from Latin terrificus, built from terrere 'to frighten' and facere 'to make': what makes you afraid. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin's Wrongs of Woman (1798) has shrieks that rouse phantoms 'far more terrific' than superstition ever drew. Today this use is archaic. A modern reader will usually hear intensity or praise, so keep it for contexts that are unmistakably dark.
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Origin
From French terrifique and its source, Latin terrificus ("terrifying"), from terrere ("to frighten, terrify") plus -ficus, from facere ("to make"). The "excellent, amazing" sense is a positive shift from the original "terrifying" meaning, similar to what happened with words like sick and wicked.