What’s the difference between horrible and horrific?
Roger Woodham replies:
You can describe something as horrible (or deadful or awful) when you do not like it at all:
You would describe something as horrific when it is really upsetting or frightening to think about it or speak about it:
Horrendous can mean horrifying, describing something you feel dismay or disgust about, but it can also be used in a less extreme way, meaning unpleasant or shocking.
Compare the following:
In a similar way, terrible and terrifying, which have similar shades of meaning to horrible and horrifying, are both derived from the noun terror from which we get the nouns terrorist and terrorism:
Be careful however with the adjective terrific which does not have the same meaning as horrific. Whereas horrific means very bad, terrific means very good.
Compare the following:
These adverbs are used even more frequently than the adjectives terrible and horrible. They often mean little more than very.
