dreadfully
Americanadverb
-
in a dreadful way.
The pain has increased dreadfully.
-
very; extremely.
Sorry to be so dreadfully late.
adverb
-
in a shocking, or disagreeable manner
-
(intensifier)
you're dreadfully kind
Etymology
Origin of dreadfully
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.
Rebounding from dreadfully depressing injury news to knock out the NBA’s best rebounding team?
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
So music breaks down barriers, as characters keep telling us in a dreadfully blunt script: “This isn’t the mill, this is the choral. And we’re all equal here.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025
Andrew Moll, the chief inspector of Marine Accidents, said it was a "cruel lesson of how rapidly things can go dreadfully wrong".
From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2024
"This is plainly a dreadfully sad case," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2024
“I need it so much. I’m dreadfully in debt, and it won’t be my turn to have the rag money for a month.”
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
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.
