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:
In the context of the dire austerity we are witnessing, the juggernaut of tech money seems impossible to resist.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
The United Nations on Friday called for the safe evacuation and repatriation of some 6,000 sailors stuck in a "dire humanitarian and human rights crisis" in the Strait of Hormuz.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
That’s a hit to gasoline markets that “you really can’t make up for,” De Haan said, and is particularly dire when U.S. refineries are already operating at nearly 97% capacity.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
But the current dire circumstances of the TV business explain why there is little pushback.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2026
He had not our dire incentive for the success of that Regiment—a noncommissioned officer in a hated regiment in a precarious fastness only a few hundred feet from a growing and volatile enemy.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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 getting to be a direr situation,” Hogan said Thursday morning at her motel where many residents live.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 6, 2022
He and she would then be each other's peril in a far direr sense than now.
From Thyrza by Gissing, George
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
This is an ancient and nearly universal idiom that resurfaces, in different forms, in different places, and at different times, in the direst of circumstances.
From Salon ● May 4, 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
Unsure of its power or abilities, we dared not use it for anything but the direst of circumstances.
From "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin
Definitions 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.
