Etymologically
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English

enormity

History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɪˈnɔːmɪti/ (Received Pronunciation), /ɪˈnoɹmɪti/ (General American)[1]

Etymology

Recorded from the late 15th century,[2][3] borrowed from Middle French énormité,[3][4] from Old French enormité “extravagance, atrocity, heinous sin”,[2] from Latin ēnormitās (“hugeness; irregularity”),[2][4] from Latin ēnormis (“irregular, huge”),[2][4] literally “deviating from the norm”.[1] Compare enormous.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A breach of law or morality, a crime (1475), and an irregularity or extravagance (1494).[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The underlying idea is of something that goes beyond the limits of order, right, or decency.[2] From the 1560s the word meant “extreme wickedness”.[2][5] The sense “hugeness” is etymologically sound,[2] but the OED regarded it as incorrect in modern use.[5] Meanwhile enormousness, which first meant “immeasurable wickedness” (1718), came to mean “hugeness” around 1800.[2]

Timeline

  • 1475 – “a breach of law or morality; a crime”.[5]
  • 1494 – “an irregularity, extravagance”.[5]
  • 1560s – “extreme or monstrous wickedness”.[2][5]
  • 1765 – “hugeness, vastness”; the OED's first quotation for this sense is from 1792.[2][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Extreme wickedness or outrageousness.[4][6][3]
  2. A monstrous offence; an outrage.[4][6][3][1]
  3. Great size, immensity; also great importance, as of a decision.[4][6][3][1]

Related words

  • enormous, enormousness
  • norm

Usage notes

Many people object to enormity in the neutral sense “great size”, preferring enormousness or immensity and keeping enormity for things that deserve moral condemnation.[4][3] 59 percent of the American Heritage Usage Panel rejected the neutral sense in a test sentence.[4] The sense “immensity” has nevertheless been in frequent use since the 18th century and appears regularly in edited writing,[3] and some usage guides see little basis for the distinction.[1] Writers who apply it to a happy event, such as an election victory or an inheritance, may cause unintended amusement.[4]

References

  1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. [1] [2] [3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster

Last edited on 5 October 2026.