egregious

adj.
Conspicuously bad or offensive. See synonyms at flagrant.

[From Latin ēgregius, outstanding : ē-, ex-, ex- + grex, greg-, herd.]

egregiously e·gre'gious·ly adv.
egregiousness e·gre'gious·ness n.

(i-GREE-juhs, -jee-uhs)

adjective
Remarkable in a bad way; flagrant.

Etymology
From Latin egregius (outstanding), from e-, ex- (out of) + greg-, stem of grex (flock). Earlier something egregious was one that stood out because it was remarkably good. Over the centuries the word took 180 degree turn and today it refers to something grossly offensive.

Usage
"The most egregious example of this sort of scapegoating came last week, when Italy's Giovanni Trapattoni blamed Ecuadorean ref Byron Moreno for the Azzuri's inglorious defeat by South Korea." — Aparisim Ghosh, Lay Off the Refs: The Men in Black Shouldn't Take Heat From a Bunch of Sore Losers, Time International, Jul 1, 2002.

"Parolles: My lord, you give me most egregious indignity. Lafeu: Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it." — William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well: Scene III.

---

When you're president of the United States, you can't just sweep your errors under a rug. They're out there, they're conspicuous, and now they're being rated by scholars:

"From engaging in sexual relations with an intern to letting the Vietnam War escalate, U.S. presidents have been blamed for some egregious errors.
So who had the worst blunder? President Buchanan, for failing to avert the Civil War, according to a survey of presidential historians organized by the University of Louisville's McConnell Center."

Link: Survey reveals top 10 presidential blunders

Posted February 21, 2006.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

adjective

Conspicuously bad or offensive: arrant, capital, flagrant, glaring, gross, rank². See good/bad.

adj

Definition: outstandingly bad; outrageous
Antonyms: little, minor, secondary, slight

---

IN BRIEF: Standing out sharply as wrong or bad.

Myra's teacher was disappointed to find that her math paper was filled with egregious errors.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - elendig, exceptionelt dårlig, fortræffelig

Nederlands (Dutch)
opmerkelijk, gedistingeerd, kolossaal

Français (French)
adj. - énorme (péj, iro), fameux (iro), insigne (gaffe, folie)

Deutsch (German)
adj. - ungeheuerlich

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - έκδηλος, κατάφωρος

Italiano (Italian)
egregio

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - notório, flagrante, terrível

Русский (Russian)
вопиющий, отъявленный, непреодолимый

Español (Spanish)
adj. - extraordinario, tremendo, atroz, insigne

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - oerhörd, enorm

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
异乎寻常的, 惊人的, 过分的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 異乎尋常的, 驚人的, 過分的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 지독한, 얼토 당토 않은

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 実にひどい

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) فاضح, رديء‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מחפיר, רע באופן בלתי-רגיל, מדהים, גס‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.