formidable

Word family

1 POWERvery powerful or impressive, and often frightening 令人敬畏的；可怕的

The building is grey, formidable, not at all picturesque.

那幢建築呈灰色，氣勢凜然，與漂亮沾不上邊。

The new range of computers have formidable processing power.

該系列的新型計算機處理能力驚人。

2 DIFFICULTdifficult to deal with and needing a lot of effort or skill 難對付的

formidable task/challenge

the formidable task of local government reorganization

重組地方政府的艱巨任務

—formidably adverbadv

Examples from the Corpus

formidable• The resource implications of a meaningful software acquisition programme are formidable.• A coalition of the young and old might, from even the most tentative beginnings, grow into a formidable force.• Thereafter it evolved rapidly into a formidable force.• Russia still has a formidable nuclear arsenal.• The team faces some formidable opponents in the next week.• Like her husband, she has formidable political skills and impressive recuperative powers.• Sheltering the village with is impressive yet formidable presence is the north face of the Eiger.• But modern publishers knew they needed a very formidable, sure-selling author to make the installment plan succeed.• They face the formidable task of working out a peace plan.

formidable task/challenge• A distillation of the riches of the existing law would be a most formidable task.• As with care within the household, the provision of care from outside can be a formidable task.• How to tantalize our lower-middle-class students was a formidable task.• The new managers obviously had their work cut out for them: learning how to be a manager was a formidable task.• Working out an effective strategy to control it rather than let it control us is a formidable challenge.• Chess posed a formidable challenge for computer scientists.• The formidable challenge for progressive bishops and theologians who dominated the Second Vatican Council was to formulate a compelling alternative.• All this proved a formidable challenge to our sweeper, a delightful Rajasthani lady named Murti.

Origin formidable

(1300-1400) Latin formidabilis, from formido “fear”

Syllable

Corpus