What does egregiousness mean?
Egregiousness denotes extreme and conspicuous badness, especially in conduct, decisions, or conditions that are shocking, offensive, or clearly wrong. The word is commonly used in legal, political, academic, and journalistic contexts to condemn serious misconduct, institutional failures, or morally indefensible treatment of people. It is more emphatic than simply calling something bad and often suggests that the fault is difficult to excuse because it is unusually flagrant. For example, a report might describe an administrator’s conduct as showing “an egregious failure of judgment,” while a campaign might denounce the “egregiousness of the policy’s consequences.” The noun is closely related to the adjective egregious, from the same Latin root. Although the word is usually uncountable, it can be used in a plural form in less common writing to refer to separate instances of extreme badness.
nounThe state or quality of being egregious; extreme and conspicuous badness, often involving shocking or offensive behavior.
- The extreme, conspicuous badness of an action, situation, or instance of conduct.
"The sheer egregiousness of the company’s conduct prompted an official investigation."
"Members of Parliament condemned the egregiousness of the discrimination revealed by the inquiry."
"The novel depicts, with dark humour, the egregiousness of life in a totalitarian state."
Rarely used in the plural; egregiousness is normally an uncountable noun.
"The commission documented several egregiousnesses in the agency’s handling of confidential records."
Its Latin ancestor literally meant “standing out from the flock”; English later made that standout quality morally notorious.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Words that share this root
How egregiousness is actually used
This is a formal, strongly evaluative noun common in legal, political, academic, and journalistic criticism. It normally conveys that wrongdoing is not merely bad but extreme, conspicuous, and plainly objectionable. It is usually treated as an uncountable noun.
Easily confused with egregiousness
Egregious is the adjective describing something exceptionally bad, while egregiousness is the noun naming that quality or condition.