ferocious en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /fəˈɹəʊʃəs/ (UK)
- /fəˈɹoʊʃəs/ (General-American)
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
Taken from Latin ferōx (“wild, bold, savage, fierce”) + -ous.
Meanings
-
Marked by extreme and violent energy.
But it seemed to me that there were few faces like his, with the ferocious profile that brought to mind the Latin word rapax or one of Rouault's crazed death-dealing arbitrary kings.
1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 376:Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.
2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 09 Apr 2022:"My memory of him in the office at Peterborough was the ferocious nature of his typing, on a manual machine of course. This was long before the days of desktop publishing, and you could hear him down the corridor absolutely hammering the keyboard."
2023 January 25, Howard Johnston, “Peter Kelly: August 2 1944-December 28 2022”, in RAIL, number 975, page 47:So Ukraine is on the ropes. Using that boxing metaphor, one immediately thinks of the new world heavyweight champion, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, who was seemingly down and out under the ferocious assault of the giant Tyson Fury, but then came back to win on points at the end of a brutal 12 rounds.
2024 May 24, Timothy Garton Ash, “Ukraine can still recover with bolder western support – but right now it’s on the ropes”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 14 Dec 2024:
- Extreme or intense.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most ferocious | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more ferocious | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |
Antonyms
Deriveds
unferocious · superferocious · ferociously · monstrocious · ferociousness
Hypernyms
Relateds
fierce · ferocity · feral · cruel · ferity
Synonyms
intense · maximum · passing · raging · greatest · almighty · raging · highest · infuriate · extreme · ferocious · volatile · maximal · incessive · furious · greatest · uttermost · fierce · exquisite · maximum · raging · utmost · grim · furious · wild · utmost · savage · rampant · ferocious · fierce · rabid · ultimate
Translations (64)
ja 猛々しい (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · ccc pchajtoki (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · it abominevole (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · fi julma (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · it feroce (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · az şiddətli (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · be лю́ты (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · kk тағы (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · kk жабайы (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · cmn 兇猛 /凶猛 (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · hu kegyetlen (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · es feroz (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · pl okrutny (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · la trux (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · sv vild (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · ca ferotge (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · la ferox (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · cmn 猖 (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · ar شَرِس (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · nl heftig (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · nl wild (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · da glubsk (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · mk сви́реп (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · pdt grausom (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · de brutal (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · sv vildsint (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · az dəhşətli (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · io feroca (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · de wild (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · de grausam (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · nl woest (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · fi raivopäinen (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · tr zalim (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · it odioso (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · pl brutalny (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · mk див (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · bg див (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · it efferato (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · nb vill (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · ota وحشی (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · eo feroca (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · hy վայրագ (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · ru жесто́кий (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · gug ñarõ (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · bg свиреп (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · pl bestialski (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · ru свире́пый (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · el άγριος (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · fi raivokas (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · kk мейірімсіз (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · kk қатал (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · fa سبع (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · nb grusom (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · hi उग्र (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · da vild (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · ota آزولو (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · hi क्रूर (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · fr féroce (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · cy brochwyllt (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · nb heftig (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · hi हिंसक (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · uk лю́тий (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · pt feroz (Marked by extreme and violent energy) · ko 사납다 (Marked by extreme and violent energy)