English → Latin
“formidable” in Latin
metuōto fear, be afraid; to be anxious or afraid about or for a specific person or thing; to revere, dreadtimeōto fear, be afraid of, apprehend, be apprehensive of; to be afraid, to fear, to be apprehensiveterribilisfrightful, dreadful, terrible, horriblehorrendushorrible, horrendous, horrific, horrid, dreadful, dreaded, frightful, awfulhorribilishorrible, terrible, dreadful, fearfultruxwild, rough, harsh, savage, fierce, ferocious; grim, sterntruculentussavage, ferocious; harsh, stern, cruel; stormyimmānisimmense, enormous, huge, vast; brutal, inhuman, frightful, savageingēnshuge, vast, enormous; immoderate, exorbitant; extraordinary, unnaturalatrōxfierce, savage, bloody; heinous, cruel, severe; terrible, frightening, dreadful
The English word formidable itself goes back to Latin formīdō, through formīdābilis.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
formidable
metuendus: timendus: terribilis: horrendus: horribilis (SYN. in FEARFUL): ☞ formidabilis is foreign to good prose: trux: truculentus (dreadful to behold or to hear; e.g., eyes, looks, words, etc.): immanis (monstrously great; then monstrous in a moral sense): ingens (enormous). A formidable war, bellum formidolosum, atrox: to render one’s self more formidable than powerful, plus timoris quam potentiae sibi addere: to be formidable to anybody, alicui terrori esse; to present anything as formidable, ad timorem aliquid proponere (Cic., ad Div., 2, 16, 4): as very formidable, ad maximum timorem proponere (ibid., 6, 3, 3). Vid: also, FEARFUL.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for formidable?
- The usual Latin words for “formidable” are metuō, timeō, terribilis; also horrendus, horribilis, trux. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.