Terrible means very bad or of extremely poor quality. When something is terrible, it's so bad that it causes distress, fear, or strong disappointment. A terrible storm might knock down trees and flood streets. A terrible headache makes it almost impossible to think clearly. A terrible performance on a test means you did far worse than you hoped.

A terrible accident frightens people who witness it. A terrible monster in a story is designed to scare readers.

In everyday conversation, people often use terrible more loosely to mean just “really bad” without actual terror involved. You might say the cafeteria food tastes terrible or that you're terrible at drawing, even though neither situation is truly frightening. Some people exaggerate and call everything terrible when they just mean disappointing or unpleasant.

The opposite of terrible is terrific, which means wonderful or excellent, even though the two words sound similar.