abysm

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abysm

/əˈbɪzəm/

Rhymes with -ɪzəm

Where it comes from

From Middle English abime, from Old French abisme from Late Latin *abyssimus, a superlative of abyssus (“bottomless pit”), from Ancient Greek ἄβυσσος (ábussos). Cognate to French abîme. See also abyss.

noun abysms · abime · abyme

archaic, poetic Hell; the infernal pit; the great deep; the primal chaos. Orkney is an archipelago of 70 or so islands lying off the northeast tip of Scotland. “Everywhere in Orkney there is the sense of age, the dark backward and abysm,” the late Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown wrote. “The islands have been inhabited for a very long time, from before the day of the plo
literary An abyss; a gulf, a chasm, a very deep hole. The abysm of hell.

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MLA

"abysm." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/abysm. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

abysm. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/abysm

Chicago

"abysm." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/abysm.

BibTeX

@misc{abysm_2026,
  title = {abysm},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/abysm},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}