hell on earth

1. 1.

   any place of pain and turmoil

   “the hell of battle”

   “the inferno of the engine room”

   “when you're alone Christmas is the pits”

   Synonymshellhellholesnake pitthe pitsinferno

   Broaderregion

Questions about hell on earth

What does hell on earth mean?

hell on earth means "any place of pain and turmoil".

What is another word for hell on earth?

Close synonyms include hell, hellhole, snake pit, the pits, inferno. 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 hell on earth a common word?

hell on earth is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.