Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Arousing fear, dread, or alarm.
- adjective Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder.
- adjective Difficult to undertake, surmount, or defeat.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Exciting or fitted to excite fear or apprehension; hard to deal with; difficult to overcome, perform, or the like: applied to persons or things possessing such strength, power, or capability, or presenting such obstacles to action or progress, as to discourage effort or inspire dread of failure.
- Synonyms Deterrent, discouraging, fearful, appalling, redoubtable.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Exciting fear or apprehension; impressing dread; adapted to excite fear and deter from approach, encounter, or undertaking; alarming.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective causing
fear ,dread ,awe oradmiration as a result of size, strength, or some other impressive quality; commandingrespect - adjective
difficult todefeat orovercome
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective extremely impressive in strength or excellence
- adjective inspiring fear
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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From this latter practice arose their name — CONDOTTIERI; a term formidable all over Italy, for a period, which concluded in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, but of which it is not so easy to ascertain the commencement.
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Fitch cautioned that the country's sovereign ratings remained constrained by relatively low levels of external liquidity as well as what it described as formidable social and structural challenges.
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From this latter practice arose their name -- CONDOTTIERI; a term formidable all over Italy, for a period, which concluded in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, but of which it is not so easy to ascertain the commencement.
The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Ward Radcliffe 1793
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He lauded Kagan for what he described as her formidable intellect and path-breaking career.
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He lauded Kagan for what he described as her formidable intellect and path-breaking career.
Fore, right! 2010
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I think 'formidable' is appropriate, 'fearful' is applicable in a political sense but 'dreadful' is quite de trop.
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Yet formidable is not a strong enough adjective to describe the conditions Richard had to overcome.
Richard's troublesome tropical journey Greg Postel 2010
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Needless to say, though the formal table setting has simplified much since the 19th century, the array of flatware, dishes and glasses remain formidable and continue to impose a barrier between the wealthy and the middle - and lower-classes.
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When I spoke to Huddleston he was full of praise for Shuker, whom he described as a formidable opponent and star of a future Labour government.
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This is an area surrounded by cacti, standing mature on the rims of cliffs, bleak yet luxuriant in formidable clusters.
chained_bear commented on the word formidable
The H.M.S. Formidable was listed as a "vessel belonging to the army" (British army), captured at Yorktown in 1781.
October 29, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word formidable
usage on Indomptable
March 29, 2008