adj
abysmal
uh-BIHZ-muhl
adj
1
Extremely bad; of very poor quality.
"The team's defense was abysmal in the second half."
"Customer service at the store was abysmal."
2
Resembling a bottomless pit; immense and deep.
"The cave descended into an abysmal darkness."
How to Use Abysmal
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishUsually just means "really, really bad" — the deep-pit sense is much rarer today.
Common pairings
abysmal failure
abysmal performance
Word Forms
more abysmal comparative, most abysmal superlative
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Etymology
Built from abysm, an older form of abyss, plus the adjective suffix -al.