dire
Americanadjective
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causing or involving great fear or suffering; dreadful; terrible.
a dire calamity.
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indicating trouble, disaster, misfortune, or the like.
dire predictions about the stock market.
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urgent; desperate.
in dire need of food.
adjective
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Also: direful. disastrous; fearful
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desperate; urgent
a dire need
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foreboding disaster; ominous
a dire warning
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dire
First recorded in 1560–70, dire is from the Latin word dīrus fearful, unlucky
Explanation
Dire refers to situations or events that cause great fear and worry. A dire calamity causes much suffering. If a family is in dire need, they need immediate help. Dire predictions or warnings tell us that a disaster may happen in the future. If you are trapped between the burning building behind you and the high cliffs in front of you, you might describe yourself as being in dire straits.
Vocabulary lists containing dire
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 2
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act I
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Arriving in Ukraine on Saturday by bus, residents whom AFP interviewed painted a dire picture of life in the city.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
It was dire, less from cold than from a broken supply system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
If non-tech companies pull back on AI, the consequences for firms such as Anthropic could be dire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
Sarah Ruscoe, a single mum out of work because of a health condition, said she had worried her daughter's bed would collapse in the night after finding herself in a "dire" financial situation.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
But even their most dire predictions had been small in the face of the devastation around Mount St. Helens.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
Rademacher said the showers will continue into at least Monday, with the midweek looking a bit direr.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2024
The TV series balances humor and tragedy like the film did; however, it’s clear in the episodes that things are direr now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2023
The fallout from that could be direr than you anticipate.
From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2022
It’s just that recent-years playoffs might have made Georgia’s plight seem direr.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2021
But as the joyful swans, that, singing sweet, Convey the medals safely to the fane, So they whose praises poets well repeat, Are rescued from oblivion, direr pain Than death.
From Orlando Furioso by William Stewart Rose
Rakhine has suffered some of the direst conditions in the war, largely cut off from the rest of Myanmar.
From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026
A recent drought saw the three direst years on record, which dropped reservoirs around the state to dangerously low levels and prompted mandatory rationing and even caused some hydroelectric power plants to shut down.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024
Unison's head of local government Mike Short said town halls were in the "direst of states".
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2023
Equally miraculous is a nonfiction movie forged in the direst of challenges that never comes across like an issue-driven medical narrative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2023
This shocked the three-judge panel, who warned us in direst terms about the dangers of conducting our own defense.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
