Enormity

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Enormity \E*nor"mi*ty\, n.; pl. {Enormities}. [L. enormitas, fr.
     enormis enormous: cf. F. ['e]normit['e]. See {Enormous}.]
     1. The state or quality of exceeding a measure or rule, or of
        being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              The enormity of his learned acquisitions. --De
                                                    Quincey.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. That which is enormous; especially, an exceeding offense
        against order, right, or decency; an atrocious crime;
        flagitious villainy; an atrocity.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              These clamorous enormities which are grown too big
              and strong for law or shame.          --South.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  enormity
       n 1: the quality of being outrageous [syn: {outrageousness}]
       2: vastness of size or extent; "in careful usage the noun
          enormity is not used to express the idea of great size";
          "universities recognized the enormity of their task"
       3: the quality of extreme wickedness
       4: an act of extreme wickedness

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  157 Moby Thesaurus words for "enormity":
     abjectness, abominableness, affront, ampleness, amplitude,
     aspersion, atrociousness, atrocity, barbarity, baseness,
     beggarliness, bigness, boundlessness, breach, brickbat, bulk,
     contempt, contemptibility, contemptibleness, contumely, crime,
     crime against humanity, crumminess, cut, deadly sin, debasement,
     degradation, delinquency, depravity, dereliction, despicableness,
     despite, dump, enormousness, error, evil, execrableness, expanse,
     failure, fault, felony, flagitiousness, flagrancy, flout, flouting,
     formidableness, foulness, fullness, fulsomeness, genocide, gibe,
     gigantism, grandeur, grandness, graveness, great scope, greatness,
     grossness, guilty act, heavy sin, heinousness, horribleness,
     horridness, horror, hugeness, humiliation, immensity, impropriety,
     indignity, indiscretion, inexpiable sin, infinity, iniquity,
     injury, injustice, insult, intensity, jeer, jeering, lapse,
     largeness, littleness, lowness, magnitude, malefaction,
     malfeasance, malum, massiveness, meanness, might, mightiness,
     minor wrong, misdeed, misdemeanor, miserableness, misfeasance,
     mock, mockery, monstrosity, monstrousness, mortal sin, muchness,
     nefariousness, nonfeasance, obnoxiousness, odiousness, offense,
     omission, outrage, outrageousness, paltriness, peccadillo,
     peccancy, pettiness, plenitude, pokiness, poorness, power,
     prodigiousness, put-down, rankness, savagery, scabbiness, scoff,
     scrubbiness, scruffiness, scumminess, scurrility, scurviness,
     seriousness, shabbiness, shoddiness, sin, sin of commission,
     sin of omission, sinful act, slip, smallness, squalor, strength,
     stupendousness, taunt, tort, transgression, tremendousness,
     trespass, trip, uncomplimentary remark, unutterable sin, vastness,
     venial sin, viciousness, vileness, weightiness, wickedness,
     wretchedness, wrong