How to Use terrible in a Sentence

terrible

adjective
  • I have a terrible cold.
  • The service at that restaurant is terrible.
  • Traffic was held up by a terrible accident.
  • Though the weather wasn’t terrible for most of the game, the ball was wet at the start.
    Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Jan. 2023
  • The place that hip-hop is in right now is a terrible place.
    Delisa Shannon, Rolling Stone, 1 Dec. 2023
  • That was what families did in 1942, with the shades drawn and the lights dimmed in the midst of a terrible war.
    Charles Osgood, CBS News, 28 Jan. 2024
  • The space behind the counter was narrow — a terrible place to die.
    Mikal Gilmore, Rolling Stone, 31 Oct. 2023
  • Those in the latter camp are nasty — terrible and stupid!
    Dan Bekerman, Deadline, 1 Nov. 2024
  • Most of them are getting stuff with syrups and things that are terrible for you.
    Eric Jackson, Sportico.com, 2 July 2024
  • That’s it, more or less; the writing isn’t great, but far from terrible.
    Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2024
  • It was left to Bibi Netanyahu to tell his parents the terrible news.
    David Remnick, The New Yorker, 14 Jan. 2024
  • Marissa and Ramses went from a sure thing to a terrible breakup in the last batch of Love is Blind episodes.
    Lissete Lanuza Sáenz, StyleCaster, 24 Oct. 2024
  • And that was for the first three years, and every offer was just terrible.
    Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Sep. 2022
  • This means action movies, where bad guys do terrible things, and the hero tracks them down and wipes them out.
    Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 7 Oct. 2022
  • Three minutes later comes the sound of a terrible thud out front.
    Ryan Lillis, Sacramento Bee, 29 Mar. 2024
  • For now, the Dolphins aren’t in terrible shape at the position.
    Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 5 Apr. 2024
  • This board made a bit of noise, but nothing too terrible.
    Sharon Brandwein, Southern Living, 6 Feb. 2024
  • The Jets’ defense can keep them in games for a while, but their offense is terrible.
    Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times, 30 Nov. 2023
  • The morale was terrible, people were being fired, the writing was on the wall that the ship was sinking.
    Seth Abramovitch, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Dec. 2022
  • But the relatives of hers that know about her terrible death … will gain some peace from it.
    Kyle Melnick, Washington Post, 30 May 2023
  • Twice, Queen Anne tried to come over from Denmark, and there were these terrible storms.
    Max Gao, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 May 2024
  • Biden had a terrible night, fumbled over his words at times, and seemed, well, very old.
    Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 11 July 2024
  • The Alexan, a hulking monster at the foot of the Katy Trail, is a good, or rather terrible, example of the form.
    Mark Lamster, Dallas News, 12 Apr. 2023
  • My boss is terrible at his job and wastes the time and energy of the 100 people below him.
    Roxane Gay, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2024
  • The film starts on board a ragtag pirate ship, back in the days when terrible pirates roamed the seven seas.
    Leo Barraclough, Variety, 30 May 2023
  • Time proves that even the best of us are capable of doing terrible things.
    Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 6 Feb. 2024
  • Over the years, many of the buildings at the former base fell into a terrible state of disrepair.
    Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Jan. 2024
  • There are grudges, and wounds, and a terrible racist secret in the attic, as there is in much of American life.
    Alessandra Codinha, Vogue, 21 Nov. 2023
  • While the case remains unsolved to this day, Burke has worked to build a life away from the shadow of that terrible Christmas night.
    Jenzia Burgos, StyleCaster, 25 Nov. 2024
  • Just as John hits the floor, Beth — who's speeding back to Montana — is struck with an unshakable sense that something terrible has happened.
    Matt Cabral, EW.com, 25 Nov. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'terrible.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: