abyss

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a·byss

(ə-bĭs′)

1. An immeasurably deep chasm, depth, or void: "lost in the vast abysses of space and time" (Loren Eiseley).

a. In the book of Genesis, the primeval Chaos out of which earth and sky were formed.

b. The abode of evil spirits; hell.

[Middle English abissus, from Late Latin abyssus, from Greek abussos, bottomless : a-, without; see a-¹ + bussos, bottom.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

abyss

(əˈbɪs)

1. (Physical Geography) a very deep or unfathomable gorge or chasm

2. anything that appears to be endless or immeasurably deep, such as time, despair, or shame

3. (Theology) hell or the infernal regions conceived of as a bottomless pit

[C16: via Late Latin from Greek abussos bottomless (as in the phrase abussos limnē bottomless lake), from a-¹ + bussos depth]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

a•byss

(əˈbɪs)

n.

1. a deep, immeasurable space, gulf, or cavity; vast chasm.

2. the lowest or most hopeless depths.

3. (in ancient cosmogony) the infernal regions; hell.

[1350–1400; earlier abisse, Middle English abissus < Late Latin abyssus < Greek ábyssos bottomless]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

abyss - a bottomless gulf or pit; any unfathomable (or apparently unfathomable) cavity or chasm or void extending below (often used figuratively)

abysm

chasm - a deep opening in the earth's surface

abyss

noun

1. chasm, gulf, split, crack, gap, pit, opening, breach, hollow, void, gorge, crater, cavity, ravine, cleft, fissure, crevasse, bottomless depth, abysm She leapt to her death in a nearby abyss.

2. cataclysm, collapse, disaster, catastrophe, upheaval, debacle, calamity, convulsion The country was on the brink of an abyss.

3. gap, difference, gulf, split, disagreement, disparity, divergence How big is the abyss between them?

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

abyss

noun

Something of immeasurable and vast extent:

abysm, chasm, deep, depth (often used in plural), gulf.

Translations

هَاوِيَة

propast

afgrund

AbgrundAbyssus

άβυσσος

abismo

abîme abysse gouffre gueule abime

végtelen mélység

hyldÿpi; tómiî

abisso baratro

bedugnėpraraja

bezdibenis

avgrund

abyss

[əˈbɪs] N (lit) → abismo m, sima f (fig) → abismo m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

abyss

[æˈbɪs] n

(lit) (in the ground) → abîme m, gouffre m

(fig) → abîme m, gouffre m
to be on the brink of an abyss → être au bord du gouffre

abyss

n (lit, fig) → Abgrund m; the abyss of war → der Abgrund des Krieges

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

abyss

[əˈbɪs] n (liter) → abisso, baratro

abyss

(əˈbis) noun

a very deep or bottomless hole or chasm.

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References in classic literature ?

By dint of leaping, climbing, gambolling amid the abysses of the gigantic cathedral he had become, in some sort, a monkey and a goat, like the Calabrian child who swims before he walks, and plays with the sea while still a babe.

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The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.

View in context

It may be that he swept back into the past, and fell among the blood-drinking, hairy savages of the Age of Unpolished Stone; into the abysses of the Cretaceous Sea; or among the grotesque saurians, the huge reptilian brutes of the Jurassic times.