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His reprehensible behavior was a constant embarrassment to his family.

Definition: describes deplorable, highly unacceptable action, deserving severe rebuke

Synonyms: condemnable, shameful, blameworthy, unjustifiable, vile, heinous, reproachable, culpable, errant

Antonyms: praiseworthy, laudable

Tips: Reprehensible is a very strong word and is used to describe actions that are despicable and condemnible. A reprehensible act is one that, usually, cannot be forgiven.

Usage Examples:

Your actions in this matter are reprehensible, and you will be held accountable for them. (deplorable, condemnable)

The former president's reprehensible behavior was seemingly forgotten in later years, when throngs of people came out to hear him speak. (errant, shameful)

What you said was reprehensible, and I think you should make a public apology for it. (condemnable, reproachable)

Your behavior was so reprehensible, I can't even look at you right now. (errant, shameful, condemnable)

It is a very strong condemnation of someone's actions. "Blameworthy" is much less emphatic. It is so strong that it is applied only to actions, not to people (even Hitler!)

Union Carbide's reprehensible mismanagment in Bhopal...

Some felt that President Bush's falsifications leading up to the war in Iraq were reprehensible, and called for his impeachment, while others...

The word is actually an amalgam of three things and it derived from a single incident here in Ireland. The story goes that a female chicken was shouted at for something she didn't do and she subsequently ended up on the dinner table.

So we had a person scolding (REPRE-manding)

the female chicken (HEN)

for a deed she was innocent of (not responSIBLE for) - and so the word REPREHENSIBLE was conceived.

I find it reprehensible that you cannot even bother to look up this word on dictionary.com or something