abysm

noun

ə-ˈbi-zəm How to pronounce abysm (audio)
plural abysms
Synonyms of abysmnext
: abyss
What seest thou else / In the dark backward and abysm of time?—William Shakespeare
… watching [The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino] is like channel-surfing between a teen romance and a dark abysm of loss and grief.—Roger Ebert

Synonyms of abysm

Relevance
See All Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus

Examples of abysm in a Sentence

a recurrent dream in which he would fall helplessly into a dark and silent abysm

Word History

Etymology

borrowed (with later spelling-pronunciation of s) from Anglo-French & Middle French abysme (compare Middle English abyme from Anglo-French abime, abisme), going back to Old French abysme, going back to Vulgar Latin *abismus, alteration of Late Latin abyssus abyss, perhaps via abíss(i)mus, alteration by haplology of abyssíssimus, a superlative derivative from abyssus

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of abysm was in the 14th century

Rhymes for abysm

See All Rhymes for abysm

Browse Nearby Words

Abyla
abysm
abysmal
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Abysm.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abysm. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Definition revised
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Why does English have so many silent letters?

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All