Extraordinarily impressive in quality, scale, or achievement.
Reach for it when giving emphatic praise when ordinary excellence understates the result
The volunteers made phenomenal progress, reopening every classroom before winter.
| playful |
|
|---|---|
| everyday | |
| warm | |
| professional | |
| formal | |
| literary |
playful
Fits when amazed enthusiasm suits the tone
Careful Literally it questions belief and can sound careless in factual reporting.
playful
Fits when visible scale or display drives the praise
Careful It overstates quiet, subtle, or technical excellence.
everyday
Fits when confident familiar praise is enough
Careful It can sound dated and is much less emphatic than phenomenal.
warm
Fits when an achievement deserves special notice
Careful Something may be remarkable for rarity rather than excellence.
professional
Fits when quality clearly exceeds the normal standard
Careful It is more restrained and lacks phenomenal's exuberance.
professional
Fits when comparative performance stands above peers
Careful Outstanding needs a comparison and is less natural for sheer size.
formal
Fits when the result lies far beyond what is usual
Careful Extraordinary can mean unusual without being good.
literary
Fits when the result genuinely causes surprise
Careful A surprising result may still be negative.
literary
Fits when concise elevated praise is appropriate
Careful The word concerns quality more than magnitude or surprise.
phenomenal success
The free repair clinic became a phenomenal success across the county.
phenomenal growth
The seedlings showed phenomenal growth once the soil drainage improved.
absolutely phenomenal
Her final recital was absolutely phenomenal without sacrificing the quiet passages.
phenomenal achievement
Reopening the tunnel safely in six weeks was a phenomenal achievement.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Vealhurl, Southern England accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 Updated
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