grotesque

1. 1.

   distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous

   “tales of grotesque serpents eight fathoms long that churned the seas”

   “twisted into monstrous shapes”

   Synonymsmonstrous

   Similarugly
2. 2.

   ludicrously odd

   “Hamlet's assumed antic disposition”

   “fantastic Halloween costumes”

   “a grotesque reflection in the mirror”

   Synonymsanticfantasticfantastical

   Similarstrange

1. 1.

   art characterized by an incongruous mixture of parts of humans and animals interwoven with plants

   Broaderart

Other forms of grotesque

plural

grotesques·

comparative

grotesquer·

superlative

grotesquest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about grotesque

What does grotesque mean?

grotesque means "distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in grotesque?

grotesque has 2 syllables: grote-sque. The stress falls on "sque". In IPA it is /ɡɹoʊˈtɛsk/.

What is another word for grotesque?

Close synonyms include monstrous, antic, fantastic, fantastical. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is grotesque a common word?

grotesque is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.