The phrase "a terrible combination" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe two or more elements that, when combined, result in a negative or undesirable outcome.
Example: "The lack of communication and poor planning created a terrible combination that led to the project's failure."
Alternatives: "a disastrous mix" or "a bad pairing".
It makes you wonder, what the heck did I do wrong?" The honeybees had fallen victim to a terrible combination of circumstances: an exceptionally harsh winter, and the combined effects of two tiny exotic parasites, the tracheal mite and the varroa mite.
"Knickers and bleach are a terrible combination," he said.
More seriously, one former cabinet minister believes that Cameron's style and his ambition form "a terrible combination".
She resembles an earthbound cross between two Julias — Roberts and Louis-Dreyfus — not a terrible combination, with one floral tattoo on an ankle and another atop her shoulder.
The downturn in liquidity in the markets and in advertising "is a terrible combination of things that we haven't seen before", she said.
But while she would no doubt have been even happier with gold, just competing at the Olympic Games, let alone getting on to the podium, was a stupendous achievement for a young woman whose nascent career was nearly derailed by a terrible combination of injury and illness.
For me, what lingers is something small, but which, thanks to the terrible combination of an idle brain and the power of music, has become the worst kind of earworm: the hook for a pop song that barely exists.
Being a teenager is a terrible, uncomfortable combination of sweatiness and weird obsessions.
If we had, by some terrible combination of luck, bribery and widespread food poisoning among our opponents, actually won the World Cup, the country would have been uninhabitable.
The word he uses when discussing why he left Peru is desorden — chaos — the terrible combination of the noise and dirt and street crime of Lima, the volatility of the economy, and the corruption of the government.
Follow us during the day as we dig for the latest gadget gossip, and then during the night as we make the terrible combination of desert heat and hard alcohol.
