abysm

noun

ə-ˈbi-zəm How to pronounce abysm (audio)
Synonyms of abysmnext
: abyss
… the dark backward and abysm of time …—William Shakespeare

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 7 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on abysm

Nglish: Translation of abysm for Spanish Speakers

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

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
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
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All