also: おおそれた
pre-noun adjectival
outrageous; wild; reckless; audacious
Used pre-nominally to describe ambitions, ideas, plans, claims, or actions that are shockingly bold, excessive, or beyond reasonable bounds. Often carries a negative or critical tone.
彼は大それた野心を抱いている。
He harbors outrageous ambitions.
そんな大それた計画は成功するはずがない
Such a wild plan cannot possibly succeed.
Irregular reading marked as おおそれた; rarely used and may be considered non-standard.
Kana spelling is common in everyday writing, especially when the kanji 大 might be misread as おお.
途方もない also means 'outrageous' or 'absurd', but is more general and can describe scale, amount, or impossibility, while 大それた specifically modifies nouns like ambitions or ideas with a sense of reckless audacity.
無謀な means 'reckless' or 'foolhardy', focusing on lack of caution, whereas 大それた emphasizes the excessive or shocking nature of the ambition or claim itself.
Derived from the verb 逸れる (それる, 'to deviate') with the prefix 大 (だい, 'big, great'), literally 'greatly deviated'. The form 大それた is the past/perfective attributive form of 大逸れる, used as a pre-noun adjectival.