abyss

nounattested in dialogue

United Kingdom//əˈbɪs//
United States//əˈbɪs//
United States//æˈbɪs//

Hell; the bottomless pit; primeval chaos; a confined subterranean ocean.

noun

1
Hell; the bottomless pit; primeval chaos; a confined subterranean ocean.
'You cannot enter here,' said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. 'Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!'
2
A bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable; any void space.
Below is the deep abyss of the Lauterbrunnen valley, and at its head a stately semi-circle of mountains, with the pyramidal Lauterbrunnen Breithorn as the centre-piece.
3
Anything infinite, immeasurable, or profound.
4
Moral depravity; vast intellectual or moral depth.
They fell into the abyss of drug addiction.
5
An impending catastrophic happening.
6
The center of an escutcheon; fess point.
7
The abyssal zone.
8
figurativeA difference, especially a large difference, between groups.

Etymology

From Middle English abissus, from Late Latin abyssus (“a bottomless gulf”), from Ancient Greek ἄβυσσος (ábussos, “bottomless”, from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + βυσσός (bussós, “deep place”)), from βυθός (buthós, “deep place”). Displaced native Old English neowolnes.

Forms

plural: abysses

abuse · Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad…abused · Having been a victim of some form of abuse, most commonly…abusive · Prone to treat someone badly by coarse, insulting words or…

abyss · Hell; the bottomless pit; primeval chaos; a confined subterranean ocean.

ac · account; money of account Ac · The Acura Legend automobile.AC · Initialism of alternating current (often used to indicate an…

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.