grotesque

From Middle French grotesque (French grotesque), from Italian grottesco (“of a cave”), from grotta. Compare English grotto.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡɹəʊˈtɛsk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡɹoʊˈtɛsk/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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grotesque (comparative grotesquer, superlative grotesquest)

1. distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous
2. disgusting or otherwise viscerally reviling.
3. (typography) sans serif.

• grody
• grotty
• guro, ero-guro

grotesque (countable and uncountable, plural grotesques)

1. A style of ornamentation characterized by fanciful combinations of intertwined forms.
2. Anything grotesque.
   • 2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London):

     He’s also the new character from Sacha Baron Cohen, the man behind Ali G, Borat and Brüno: that unholy trinity of comic grotesques that told us a lot more about ourselves than we’d like to admit.

3. (typography) A sans serif typeface.

• grotesquely
• grotesqueness

• Grotesque in the 1905 edition of the New International Encyclopedia.

From Italian grottesco (“of a cave”), from grotta.

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁɔ.tɛsk/

• Audio (Paris)

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• Audio

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grotesque (plural grotesques)

1. farcical (ridiculous)
2. grotesque

grotesque m (plural grotesques)

1. grotesqueness

• “grotesque” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• crotesque

grotesque m or f (plural grotesques)

1. farcical (ridiculous)

grotesque f (plural grotesques)

1. small cave
2. ornament

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (grotesque, supplement)