Elizabeth Chamberlain
Mildred Moyer
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Learn the origin, synonyms, and usage of the word grotesque, which can be a noun or an adjective. A grotesque is a style of art with fantastic or bizarre forms, or something that is unnatural or ugly.
Grotesque means strange and unpleasant, especially in a silly or slightly frightening way, or wrong or unfair to a shocking degree. It can also be a noun for a painting or other artistic work with an image of a person that is ugly or unpleasant as its subject.
odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre. Synonyms: wild, antic, weird, deformed, distorted. fantastic in the shaping and combination of forms, as in decorative work combining incongruous human and animal figures with scrolls, foliage, etc.
In art, grotesques are ornamental arrangements of arabesques with interlaced garlands and small and fantastic human and animal figures, usually set out in a symmetrical pattern around some form of architectural framework, though this may be very flimsy.
Grotesque means strange and unpleasant, especially in a silly or slightly frightening way, or wrong or unfair to a shocking degree. Learn more about the word, its usage and related terms with Cambridge Dictionary.
Use grotesque to describe things that are very strange and ugly in an unnatural way. If something "grosses you out," you can safely refer to it as grotesque. Grotesque also refers to a style of art that uses odd and fanciful combinations of natural, human, and animal forms.
grotesque. adjective. /ɡrəʊˈtesk/. /ɡrəʊˈtesk/. strange in a way that is unpleasant or offensive. a grotesque distortion of the truth. The story was too grotesque to believe. It's grotesque to expect a person of her experience to work for so little money. The whole situation was really grotesque.
