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

Swinney described as "dreadful" Reform's proposal to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty designed to protect human rights and political freedoms,

From BBC

Few saw it coming, just as few see anything good happening for Rangers on Sunday, regardless of Celtic's dreadful failure on Tuesday night.

From BBC

Gayanne Potter's Scottish accent was used to teach station announcer "Iona", but she said it was a surprise to hear a "dreadful" robotic version of herself.

From BBC

Owen Lawson: The appointment of Martin was very strange given his dreadful performance at his previous club.

From BBC

However, the problem applying spin about a brighter future when addressing a dreadful present is that the future eventually becomes the present, which is where Amorim is now.

From BBC

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.