Noun: monster
| Singular | monster |
| Plural | monsters |
Sample Sentences
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O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear,/ to make an earthquake. [1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:]
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[T]he monſter [sc. a tiger], rouſed by the noiſe, ſtarted forward, preſented ſuch a viſage of horror, and raiſed ſuch a hideous roar, that the hearts of the bold were contracted, and the nerves of the valiant unſtrung. [1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 6:]
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He caught Grendel's right hand, and still without rising from his bed, stopped the monster's onrush. [1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 29:]
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His origin amongst monsters and man-eaters signals the play's recurrent concerns with monstrification, with eating others or being eaten by them, and with issues of specularity […] [1995, Bradley William Johnson, Birthed Effects: Shakespeare's Generation of Monsters, page 67:]
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“My flesh was not for feasting on,
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there would be no monsters gnawing and gloating
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over their banquet at the bottom of the sea.” [1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 19:]
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Get away from those children, you monster!
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I'm not a monster, Tom, well, technically I am / I guess I am... [2006, Jonathan Coulton, “Re: Your Brains”, in Thing a Week Two:]
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My young children leave their art everywhere. I find most of it on the floor. […] Eventually, I started throwing it all away. Perhaps I am a monster. [2018 September 16, Mary Townsend, “Throw Your Children’s Art Away”, in The Atlantic, retrieved 19 Dec 2022:]
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"Because of this monster, Jayme won't have her mom and dad at her dance recitals," Mike Closs, Jayme's uncle, said in court. Closs' aunt Jennifer Smith said the family was satisfied with the sentence and knew it would give Jayme peace. [2019 May 24, Joey Peters, “'Embodiment of evil': Jayme Closs kidnapper sentenced to die in prison”, in The Guardian:]
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So go and tell your friends that I'm a fucking monster / Sugar, spice and torture / Do it for the culture [2023, Ennaria, “Monstarrr”:]
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Sit still, you little monster!
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The rest of the day he heard the children playing kick-the-can, hide-and-seek, Over-Annie-Over, jacks, tops, mibs, and the sound of the little monsters in every shrub and shadow would not let him rest.
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That dude playing guitar is a monster.
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He was a party monster. Able to drink and drug just about any member of the Fleetwood Mac family under the table, he did so with regularity and charm. [2009, Carol Ann Harris, Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac, page 216:]
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Have you seen those powerlifters on TV? They're monsters.
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Although she, for many years had waged continual war against rheumatism, her pleasant face shone like the full moon from under the white head-gear, while she had protected herself against any possible attack of the enemy by a multiplicity of petticoats and jackets; and as an outer fortification she had put on a monster of a frieze cloak. [1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 250:]
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The blacks had faded into the jungle before the weak eyes of the monster had fallen upon any of them, but now he caught the sound of their retreat, and, amid a terrific crashing of underbrush and branches, he charged in the direction of the noise. [1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 132:]
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Ashley: Look at the size of that ship!
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Kaidan: The Ascension. Flagship of the Citadel fleet.
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Joker: Well, size isn't everything.
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Ashley: Why so touchy, Joker?
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Joker: I'm just saying you need firepower, too.
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Ashley: Look at that monster! It's main gun could rip through the barriers on any ship in the Alliance fleet. [2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Bridge, Command Deck, SSV Normandy:]
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The villagers were worried because the weather had been strange and several monsters had been born among the flocks and people.
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Deducting then these cases, we have a large proportion of imperfect foetuses, which belonged to twin conceptions, and in which, therefore, the circulation of the monster may have essentially depended on that of the sound child. [1837, Medico-Chirurgical Review, page 465:]
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Cases of twins developed from one ovum, where one twin flourishes at the expense of its less fortunate partner, are not by any means uncommonly met with in veterinary practice. This is evidenced by the fairly frequent descriptions in veterinary periodicals of so-called "moles." It is not, therefore, with the idea of describing any monster of startling newness that I am tempted to record the anatomical peculiarities of one such anomaly; but rather because "moles," as described most commonly in veterinary journals, are viewed from the exterior only; their inner organisation being, for the most part, either ignored entirely, or treated of in a very cavalier manner. No doubt the external form and semblance of any monster is a matter of interest, but alone it is not satisfying; nor, indeed, is it always a trustworthy indication of the most important peculiarities of the organism. The outer architecture of a monster may be entirely misleading if taken too implicitly as a reflex of the internal furnishings. Especially is this the more likely to be the case when the malformation is great. [1900 April 26, O. Charnock Bradley, “An Acardiac Monster”, in The Veterinary Journal [British Veterinary Journal], volume 1 (New Series), number 16, pages 207–208:]
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"Periodically, storms would bring the creeping death to the valley - drifting clouds of radio-active dust - and men would sicken and die and women give birth to monsters." [1957, Sydney J. Bounds, The Robot Brains, London: Digit Books, page 153:]
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The children decided Grover was a cuddly monster.
Nouns inflected like monster
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *men-
3. Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
4. Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti
5. Proto-Indo-European *monéyeti
6. Proto-Italic *man-eje-
7. Proto-Italic *moneō
8. Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr
9. Proto-Indo-European *-trom
10. Proto-Italic *-trom
11. Proto-Italic *monestrom
12. Latin mōnstrumbor.
13. Old French monstrebor.
14. Middle English monstre
15. English monster
16. From Middle English monstre, from Old French monstre, mostre, moustre, from Latin mōnstrum. Displaced native Old English fīfel and Old English þyrs. See: Middle English Nouns '
monstre', Latin Nouns '
mōnstrum'.
Verbs referencing "monster"
Dutch Nouns
monster, German Nouns
Monster, Finnish Nouns
monsteri.