causing fear or dread or terror; "the awful war"; "an awful risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling"; "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse"
Used in a Sentence
dreadful
How to use dreadful in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for dreadful.
Editorial note
This was dreadful and embarrassing to read through.
Examples9
Definitions3
Parts of speech1
Quick take
causing fear or dread or terror; "the awful war"; "an awful risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling"; "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse"
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of dreadful gathered in one view.
exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste"; "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room"
very unpleasant
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for dreadful.
adjective
causing fear or dread or terror; "the awful war"; "an awful risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling"; "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse"
adjective
exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste"; "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room"
See also: atrocious, abominable, awful, painful, terrible, unspeakable
adjective
very unpleasant
Example sentences
This was dreadful and embarrassing to read through.
Having suffered an expensive microwave with a dreadful UI - I love this concept.
I've been active here for about 2 years now. I don't think there's been the dreadful decline people are talking about; I think it's mostly nostalgia talking.
And when it's not simple pay, it's severance packages that give Fuck-You money to people whose performance provably dreadful.
As a student, I tried to use a tablet with ebooks exclusively for a few of my university classes, and it was fairly dreadful.
Not that this comes as a surprise...Navigation is great, so much better than Siri's dreadful voice, easy to navigate from A>B with a tap of your destination.
It is a dreadful poesy to think that the last stargazer from this planet might have been a robotic rocket, looking up once at the fixed stars for all of humanity before ending it.
Mentioned this on HN previously but as a nearly 40 year old developer who has been developing professionally for nearly 20 years -- it used to be the norm for programmers to get their own offices, even just the regular joe programmers... Places really tight for space might put two guys in a very spacious shared corner office...A few years into my career the idea of cubicles caught on and quickly became the norm, and now of course we're stuck with these horrible open offices that are, in my experience, just absolutely dreadful for productivity; but since everyone is doing it nobody really notices anymore.
But sometimes one is dominant, and if the gray beast gets its teeth all the way into you, it takes away not just positive feelings but everything until you're just a walking shell so empty you can't even fully comprehend what you've lost.> The converse, when the black beast has you, can be much like you describe - you can still feel a kind of dreadful, frenzied joy in short moments as you cling desperately to the edge of the sucking dark hole in yourself, trying to ignore the beast's whispers that any pleasure is a lie that will just make the coming pain more stark and inescapable and utterly deserved.> They're liars, but they're good at it.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use dreadful in a sentence?
This was dreadful and embarrassing to read through.
What does dreadful mean?
causing fear or dread or terror; "the awful war"; "an awful risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling"; "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse"
What part of speech is dreadful?
dreadful is commonly used as adjective.