nightmare

[nahyt-mair]

noun

1. a terrifying dream in which the dreamer experiences feelings of helplessness, extreme anxiety, sorrow, etc.

   Synonyms: phantasmagoria

2. a condition, thought, or experience suggestive of a nightmare.

   the nightmare of his years in prison.

3. (formerly) a monster or evil spirit believed to oppress persons during sleep.

nightmare

/ ˈnaɪtˌmɛə /

noun

1. a terrifying or deeply distressing dream

2. 1. an event or condition resembling a terrifying dream

      the nightmare of shipwreck

   2. ( as modifier )

      a nightmare drive

3. a thing that is feared

4. (formerly) an evil spirit supposed to harass or suffocate sleeping people

Other Word Forms

• nightmarishness noun
• nightmarishly adverb
• nightmarish adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of nightmare¹

Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; night, mare ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of nightmare¹

C13 (meaning: incubus; C16: bad dream): from _night + Old English mare, mære evil spirit, from Germanic; compare Old Norse mara incubus, Polish zmora, French cauchemar nightmare

Synonym Study

See dream.

Example Sentences

"The people that put down a deposit for this cruise were sold a dream... and it has turned into nothing short of a nightmare," said Adam Glezer, who runs a consumer advocacy company.

From BBC

They also found human skulls fashioned into soup bowls; lampshades and costumes made from human skin; and mutilated female body parts, among other nightmare fuel.

From Los Angeles Times

“It’s very much an ongoing nightmare,” Tucker May said in an interview this week.

From Los Angeles Times

The text was every parent’s worst nightmare: A 17-year-old said he had been abducted, shot and wounded by a group of men on a Florida highway.

From Los Angeles Times

This is a nightmare realization of an ambient fear that people of color and gay folks in this country learn to live with.

From Salon

Related Words

• dream 
• fantasy 
• hallucination 
• horror 
• ordeal 
• vision 

When To Use

Where does the word nightmare come from?

Nightmares are scary and unpleasant. But you can rest easy knowing that the fascinating origin of the word nightmare makes it clear humans have been having them for hundreds of years.In Old English, a mare was a kind of evil or cursed spirit. Mares appear in all kinds of folklore, including German and Slavic stories. Mares were said to ride on people's chests at night, causing suffocation and bad dreams. These mares, often female, were known as nightmares (because they came at night).By the 16th century, the word nightmare came to refer to a sensation of suffocation or anxiety during sleep, and now simply a bad dream. While nightmares are terrifying, there is good news: at least most of us don't worry about evil spirits trying to suffocate us in our sleep anymore.The roots of these other words may get a rise—of laughter or surprise—out of you. Run on over to our roundup of them at "Weird Word Origins That Will Make Your Family Laugh."