awesome

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aliulhaq

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meaning of awesome
why we use this word main thing that i can understand
 

sumon.

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Hi Pakistani brother.
Please provide the context...
WeLcome
 

emsr2d2

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What is the meaning of "awesome"?
Why do we use this word? Please tell me the main [STRIKE]thing[/STRIKE] meaning so that I can understand it.

Hello aliulhaq, and welcome to the forum.

I have made some changes to your post. Please look at them carefully. When you write in English it is important to:

1) Start every sentence with a capital letter.
2) End every sentence with a punctuation mark (usually a full stop, but sometimes a question mark or exclamation mark).
3) Always capitalise the word "I" (first person singular).
4) Put the word that you are asking about in quotation marks, or italicise it, so that it stands out from the rest of the sentence.

If you remember to do this in all your posts, they will be easier to read and you will not find so many amendments.

The basic meaning of "awesome" is "something which inspires amazement or wonder". "Awe" is another word for amazement. Recently, "awesome" has come into more common use as an alternative to "fantastic".

Once upon a time, something like the Grand Canyon, or The Pyramids would have been described as awesome, because they genuinely are amazing and make a person stare at them in wonder. These days, just about anything can be described as awesome - a film, a meal, a pair of shoes. It has lost some of emphatic meaning and is used idiomatically just to mean "very, very good".
 

Raymott

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Recently, "awesome" has come into more common use as an alternative to "fantastic".
Yes, but only if you're using "fantastic" to mean "awesome".
The basic meaning of "fantastic" is "something which relates to fantasy - ie. unreality. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" is fantastic. So is a story about a unicorn that a four year old child might write. But the child's story is unlikely to be "awesome" in any sense.
Something fantastic is 'unreal'. (By 'unreal', I mean "not real", not 'unreal' in the sense of 'awesome'.) ...
 

emsr2d2

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Yes, but only if you're using "fantastic" to mean "awesome".
The basic meaning of "fantastic" is "something which relates to fantasy - ie. unreality. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" is fantastic. So is a story about a unicorn that a four year old child might write. But the child's story is unlikely to be "awesome" in any sense.
Something fantastic is 'unreal'. (By 'unreal', I mean "not real", not 'unreal' in the sense of 'awesome'.) ...

Fair point. "Fantastic" wasn't the best example! I should have stuck with "very, very good" as I said at the end.
 
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