Awesome
- (dated) Causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement. [from 1590–1600.] Synonyms: awe-inspiring
- (colloquial) Excellent, exciting, remarkable. Synonyms: excellent
Usage notes
The oldest meaning of awesome is of “something which inspires awe”, but the word is now also a common slang expression. It was originally so used in the United States, where it had featured strikingly in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, as used by Japan's Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to describe the "awesome" industrial potential of the United States. Consequently, as the word popularly became an expression for anything superb, in its original meaning it has tended to be replaced by the related word, awe-inspiring.
The comparative and superlative forms awesomer and awesomest are generally regarded as nonstandard.