dreadful

[dred-fuhl]

adjective

1. causing great dread, fear, or terror; terrible.

   a dreadful storm.

   Synonyms: dire, frightful

2. inspiring awe or reverence.

3. extremely bad, unpleasant, or ugly.

   dreadful cooking; a dreadful hat.

noun

British.

1. penny dreadful.

2. a periodical given to highly sensational matter.

dreadful

/ ˈdrɛdfʊl /

adjective

1. extremely disagreeable, shocking, or bad

   what a dreadful play

2. (intensifier)

   this is a dreadful waste of time

3. causing dread; terrifying

4. archaic,  inspiring awe

Other Word Forms

• dreadfulness noun
• quasi-dreadful adjective
• quasi-dreadfully adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of dreadful¹

First recorded in 1175–1225, dreadful is from the Middle English word dredful. See dread, -ful

Example Sentences

Having to be smuggled away from the Falkirk Stadium was an unedifying end to the latest dreadful day for a man who seems to be caught in the wrong movie.

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“You have to confront your own feelings about motherhood, my own feelings about becoming a parent and Linda’s dreadful choices,” she says, laughing, her wry tone slipping in as it often does.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

That pattern has resulted in Postecoglou enduring a dreadful run since his appointment on 9 September, with Saturday's loss to Sunderland in his first home game in charge their fifth game without a victory.

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Charities in Shropshire are urgently calling for benefit reforms, warning that working families could face a "dreadful" winter as food and energy bills continue to surge.

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The Dodgers have been rocked by the dreadful performance of their bullpen, so much so that a door that was once slammed shut is now wide open.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• abominable 
• alarming 
• appalling 
• atrocious 
• awful 
• bad 
• dire 
• distressing www.thesaurus.com
• frightful 
• ghastly 
• grievous 
• grim 
• hideous 
• horrendous 
• horrific 
• lousy 
• monstrous 
• rotten 
• shameful 
• shocking 

When To Use

What does dreadful mean?

Dreadful most commonly means extremely bad, unpleasant, or ugly.Less commonly, it can also mean causing great fear or terror, which makes sense because dreadful is the adjective form of the noun dread, meaning fear.Dreadful can also be used as an intensifier (a word that makes the meaning of the word it modifies more intense) in much the same way that awful can, as in You took a dreadful long time getting time. In cases like this, neither awful nor dreadful mean bad, but they are typically used in negative situations as opposed to positive ones.Dreadful can also be used in a more specific way as a shortened form of the term penny dreadful, the name for inexpensive illustrated books featuring violent action that were popular in Britain during the mid- and late-1800s.Example: My throat hurts, my head’s pounding, I’ve got the chills—I feel absolutely dreadful.