dreadful
136
3.7
- adjective
- /ˈdrɛd.fəl/
:
terrible
- Did he say anything that might shed some light on these dreadful events?
- a dreadful mistake
- dreadful conditions
- seem dreadful
He's a far left governor who has done dreadful things in that state.
- He's a far left governor who has done dreadful things in that state.
- And it's easy enough to find alternatives without committing the dreadful sin of elegant variation.
- You can't simply say episode X was dreadful.
- So there are many things that are quite dreadful.
- For example, death in itself, he says, must be nothing dreadful.
- Yeah, Rob's pretty good and I'm dreadful.
- Poverty and hunger continue at dreadful levels.
- But most things that we fear are not in themselves fearful or dreadful.
- All his veins were just like collapsed, gone in a dreadful mess.
- Virginia Tech shooting went on for hour after dreadful hour.
- So when the ladies come round, they think to themselves, well, the chat was dreadful, but the food was great.
Examples
-
What are the effects of this dreadful pandemic on societies?
-
To me, this seems to be the most dreadful problem we face today.
Academic text (1990) -
Because something dreadful is about to happen.
-
In these dreadful conditions, he still has to go the distance.
-
These events, which focus on individuals who have learned about the dreadful aspects of cancer, are important.
-
The prospects may seem so dreadful that some officials despair of doing anything useful.
Academic text (1998) -
They live in slums and work long hours in dreadful conditions.
-
Mrs Parker's sudden passing came as a dreadful shock to us all, but as we well know, God does move in mysterious ways.
-
During my time in Moscow, I grew to realize the bitter contradictions and dreadful ambiguities in my world.
Academic text (2008) -
The dreadful news of the accident spread quickly through the small town.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Very bad or unpleasant and often serious
∞
1.5
Very bad or frightening in a way that makes you feel upset
287
3.0
Causing someone to feel afraid
209
5.3
Making people feel very afraid
179
5.5
Causing great fear or shock
157
5.0
Very bad and morally wrong
141
6.9
Very serious, frightening, and needing action quickly
95
4.5
Makes people feel very afraid and shocked
87
5.6
Causing shock and strong disgust because it is very bad
82
7.0
Very shocking and scary, causing fear or disgust
65
1.1
Very frightening and causing fear or dread
58
7.2
Too terrible to describe in words
57
4.5
Very bad and shocking, causing people to feel fear or sadness
52
4.1
A very unpleasant thing that shocks or disgusts you
49
6.8
Causing great fear and shock, often like death or ghosts
42
3.1
A very bad or painful condition, for example during illness
37
4.8
Very frightening and likely to make people afraid
28
6.1
Very unpleasant and painful, like being in hell
25
7.1
Very bad or of poor quality
24
7.2
Very bad or morally wrong so people strongly dislike it
19
2.9
Causing strong fear and worry
17
7.0
Very frightening and unpleasant, like a bad dream
16
8.4
Very bad and unpleasant
12
7.6
Very cruel and shocking, causing great pain and fear
7
4.2
Very bad or unpleasant in a strong way
4
8.2
Very bad and unpleasant, of poor quality
3
6.4
Causing strong fear or worry
3
9.0
Very bad or difficult and hard to deal with
1
4.2
Causing great fear or worry
1
9.9
Causing great fear or showing terrible danger
Causing strong fear or disgust that makes you shiver
Antonyms
Compounds
How Bad
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Dreadful comes from the old word dread meaning 'fear' and the ending -ful meaning 'full of'. So, to call something dreadful is to say it is full of fear or very bad, unpleasant, or shocking.