Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Dreadful |
DreadfulAdjective1. 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". 2. 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". 3. Very unpleasant. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "dreadful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Synonyms: DreadfulSynonyms: abominable (adj), atrocious (adj), awful (adj), dire (adj), direful (adj), dread(a) (adj), dreaded (adj), fearful (adj), fearsome (adj), frightening (adj), horrendous (adj), horrific (adj), painful (adj), terrible (adj), unspeakable (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Dejection | Adjective: cheerless, joyless, spiritless; uncheerful, uncheery; unlively; unhappy; melancholy, dismal, somber, dark, gloomy, triste, clouded, murky, lowering, frowning, lugubrious, funereal, mournful, lamentable, dreadful. |
Description | Work of fiction, novel, romance, Minerva press; fairy tale, nursery tale; fable, parable, apologue; dime novel, penny dreadful, shilling shocker |
Fear | Inspiring fear; Verb: alarming; formidable, redoubtable; perilous; (danger); portentous; fearful; dread, dreadful; fell; dire, direful; shocking; terrible, terrific; tremendous; horrid, horrible, horrific; ghastly; awful, awe-inspiring; revolting; (painful); Gorgonian. |
Inexpedience | Bad, ill, arrant, as bad as bad can be, dreadful; horrid, horrible; dire; rank, peccant, foul, fulsome; rotten, rotten at the core. |
Pain | Shocking, terrific, grim, appalling, crushing; dreadful, fearful, frightful; thrilling, tremendous, dire; heart-breaking, heart-rending, heart-wounding, heart-corroding, heart-sickening; harrowing, rending. |
Perpetuity | Phrase: esto perpetuum; labitur et labetur in omne volubilis oevum; "but thou shall flourish in immortal youth"; "Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought"; "her immortal part with angels lives"; ohne Rast; ora e sempre. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Dreadful |
| English words defined with "dreadful": awful, awfully ♦ clutch ♦ Dearn, dire, direful, dismally, dread, dreaded, dreadfully, Dreadly ♦ fearful, fearsome, frightening ♦ get hold of ♦ horrendous, horribly, horrific ♦ seize ♦ terrible. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "dreadful": Adjective or Adverb ♦ Bartholomew ♦ Clorinda ♦ Friendship ♦ Inundation ♦ Margherit'a di Valois, Marseilles' Good Bishop ♦ Nevers ♦ Windmills. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "dreadful": Dreadly. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Many knights tried to rescue her from this dreadful prison, but none prevailed. (Shrek; writing credit: Ted Elliott) That dreadful woman with no eyebrows who wouldn't sit still? (Doctor Who; writing credit: Basil Caplan; Martin Defalco) All splendid lovers have just dreadful times! (The Parent Trap; writing credit: Erich Kstner; David Swift) Oh! That's a dreadful thing to say. (Fawlty Towers; writing credit: John Cleese; Connie Booth) I know, it's dreadful, seeing each other every day and never being alone together (The Private Life of Henry VIII; writing credit: Lajos Bir; Arthur Wimperis) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Drama's Dreadful Deal (1917) Jesus: Dreadful Bio-Monsters (1989) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | View of the manner of burying the dead Bodies At Holy-well mount during the dreadful PLAGUE in 1665 / Wale delin. Grignion Sculp. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Dreadful Riot on Negro Hill!. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The Barnum and Bailey greatest show on earth--L'Auto Bolide thrilling dip of death--M'lle Mauricia de Tiers, the fearless, young and fascinating Parisian, in a dreadful, headlong leap, loop and topsy turvy plunging somersault with an automobile [...]. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Arthur Wellesley | The next dreadful thing to a battle lost is a battle won. |
Homer | Endure, my heart: you once endured something even more dreadful. |
Jane Austen | What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance. |
Joseph Addison | Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought. |
Josh Billings | Advice is like castor oil, easy to give, but dreadful to take. |
Marcus Terentius Varro | A sick man dreams nothing so dreadful that some philosopher isn't saying it. |
Oliver Wendell Holmes | And when you stick on conversation's burrs, don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs. |
Samuel Johnson | Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. |
Thomas Carlyle | Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | She would catch a dreadful cold. |
Horrors | Carroll, Lewis | I saw a monster come with speed, Its face of grimmliest green, On human beings used to feed, Most dreadful to be seen. |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | Dreadful as it was, she was conscious of a shelter in the presence of these thousand witnesses. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Standing shivering upon the dreadful brink, he recoiled with horror. |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | To bear even the sting of an insect for all eternity would be a dreadful torment. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | FRIENDSHIP, n. A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul. The sea was calm and the sky was blue; Merrily, merrily sailed we two. (High barometer maketh glad.) On the tipsy ship, with a dreadful shout, The tempest descended and we fell out. (O the walking is nasty bad!) Armit Huff Bettle |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Dwight Eisenhower | 1953-1961 | Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Dreadful" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 97.78% of the time. "Dreadful" is used about 1,440 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 97.78% | 1,409 | 5,707 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.15% | 31 | 62,296 |
| Noun (singular) | 0.07% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,440 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "dreadful": he's a dreadful wriggler ♦ penny dreadful. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "dreadful": dreadful-looking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "dreadful"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaans | afskuwelik (abhorrent, abominable, abysmal, alien, awful, gruesome, hideous, horrible, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | tmerrues (appalling, awe inspiring, awesome, deterrent, fearful, grisly, horrific, lurid, monstrous, terrifying), shumë i keq (unspeakable), imponues (commanding, compelling, obtrusive, overbearing), i llahtarisur, i lemerishëm (grisly, horrible, horrid, terrible), i frikshëm (bloodcurdling, eerie, eery, fearful, fearsome, forbidding, formidable, frightful, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, morbid, redoubtable, redoubted, terrific, tremendous), fort i pakëndshëm. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كريه جدا (detestable), مفزع (appallingly, awful, dread, frightening, frightful, horrible, sanctuary, startling, terrible), مخيف (awful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, frightful, grisly, gruesome, horrifying, scaremonger, terrifying), مجلة مثيرة رخيصة, مروع (alarmed, appalling, awful, frightened, frightening, frightful, ghastly, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrific, horrified, horrifying, macabre, panic stricken, scared, shocked, shocking, startled, startling, terrified, terrifying, terror stricken, terrorized), مرعب (alarming, appalling, awesome, frightening, frightful, hair raising, horrible, horrific, horrifying, terrible, terrific, terrifying), لا يحتمل (insufferable, intolerable, unbearable), قصة مثيرة (thriller), رهيب (bloodcurdling, bloody, chilly, dire, fearful, fierce, grisly, gruesome, hairy, holy, horrible, horrific, lurid, macabre, monstrous, morbid, nightmarish, redoubtable, smashing, super, terrible, wretched), بغيض (abominable, accursed, antipathetic, beastly, blasted, cursed, damned, detestable, distasteful, forbidding, frightful, hateful, horrid, impossible, nasty, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, out of favor, out of favour, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, sticky, ungrateful, unhappy, unlikely, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unwelcome, villainous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | страшен (alarming, almighty, apocalyptic, awesome, awful, dire, fearful, fearsome, forbidding, formidable, frightful, grisly, gruesome, hair raising, horrible, redoubtable, scary, terrible, terrific, tremendous, wicked), ужасен (aghast, appalling, awful, bloodcurdling, deadly, desperate, deuced, devastating, dire, direful, eldritch, execrable, fearful, fearsome, frantic, frightful, furious, ghastly, great, grievous, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, horror-stricken, lurid, macabre, miserable, morbid, murderous, planet-stricken, planet-struck, precious, sad, septic, terrible, terrific, towering, tremendous, unholy, unmentionable, vicious, wretched). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 令人恐惧, 可怕 (awful, fearful, formidable, frightful, hideous, horrible, terrible, terribly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | dìsný (awful, fearsome, great, grim, grisly, gruesome, hair-rising, hairy, horrid, lurid, macabre, unearthly, unholy), strašný (awful, chronic, dire, distressing, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightful, ghastly, gruesome, hairy, hellish, hideous, hopeless, horrible, horrific, terrible, tremendous), strašlivý (direful, gruesome, stark), příšerný (appalling, atrocious, blinding, chronic, creepy, damnable, excruciating, fearful, fiendish, ghastly, grisly, gruesome, horrendous, terrible, terrific, unholy, unspeakable, villainous, weird), hrozný (abysmal, appalling, atrocious, awful, damnable, dire, excruciating, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightful, ghastly, grim, hateful, hellish, horrible, mortal, terrible, terrific, tremendous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | skrækkelig (abysmal, gruesome, horrible, terrible), rædsom (abysmal, alarmed, dismayed, dumbfounded, gruesome, horrible, put out of countenance, terrible), forfærdelig (abysmal, alarmed, dismayed, dumbfounded, gruesome, horrible, put out of countenance, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | schrikaanjagend (abysmal, gruesome, horrible, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | terura (abysmal, gruesome, horrible, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | ræðuligur (abysmal, gruesome, horrible, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | وحشتناک (Bloodcurdling, Grisly, Terrible), بد (Amiss, Bad, Evil, Ill, Junky, Rum, Unfavorable). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | kauhea (awful, frightful, horrible, terrible), kammottava (uncanny), kamala (frightful, ghastly), hirveä (awful, heinous, terrible), hirmuinen (frightful, horrible, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | terrible (dread), affreux (dreary). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | schrecklich (abominably, abysmal, appalling, awful, awfully, dire, direly, dreadfully, fearful, fearfully, formidable, frantic, frightful, frightfully, grim, gruesome, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horridly, horrific, horrifying, indescribable, indescribably, lurid, luridly, monstrously, painfully, shockingly, terrible, terribly, terrificly, terrifying, tremendous, tremenduously), furchtbar (abysmal, awful, awfully, fearful, fearfully, formidable, frightful, frightfully, gruesome, horrendous, horrible, parlous, redoubtable, shocking, shockingly, terrible, terribly, tremendous), schauderhaft (awful, ghastly, horrible, terrible), grässlich (abominable, abominably, atrocious, awful, damnable, damnably, dire, direful, excruciating, excruciatingly, ghastly, grisly, heinous, hideous, horrible, horribly, horrid, horridly, infernal, miserable, miserably, monstrous, nauseating, putrid, terrible, terribly), gräßlich (abysmal, direful, ghastly, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horridly, terrible), fürchterlich (awful, excruciating, fearsome, horrible, horribly, horrid, horridly, horrifying, indescribable, miserable, miserably, monstrously, outrageously, racking, redoubtable, redoubtably, terrible, terribly, terrifying, tremendous), entsetzlich (abysmal, abysmally, appalling, awful, bloodcurdling, dire, excruciating, frightful, gruesome, harrowing, hideous, horrendous, horrendously, horrible, horribly, horrid, horridly, horrific, horrifying, outrageous, racking, shocking, shockingly, sickening, terrible, unspeakable). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | φοβερόσ (awesome, fearful, formidable, horrifying, redoubtable, terrifying), επίφοβοσ (unsafe), απαίσιοσ (abominable, execrable, flagrant, ghastly, horrid, ominous, sinister, stinking). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מפיל אימ" (dread), מחרי" (appalling, grim, grisly, horrible, horrific, macabre), איום ו ורא, איום (awful, dire, fearful, fell, frightful, grim, hideous, intimidation, menace, terrible, terrific, threat). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szörnyû (abysmal, awful, deadly, dire, dismal, grisly, gruesome, horrible, monstrous, terrible, terrific, tremendous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Icelandic | hryllilegur (abhorrent, abominable, abysmal, alarmed, alien, awful, dismayed, dumbfounded, gruesome, hideous, horrible, put out of countenance, terrible), hræðilegur (abysmal, dismal, dreary, ghastly, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | dahsyat (awe, awe inspiring, awful, dire, horrifying, imposing, terrifying), menakutkan (alarm, awful, chiller, daunt, ercy, ghastly, horrible, horrify, terrify). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | terribile (abysmal, appaling, appalling, awful, dire, direful, fearful, fearsome, gruesome, horrible, splitting, terrible, terrific, tremendous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 鬼気 (ghastly), 恐い (eerie, frightening, scary), 恐ろしい (terrible), 恐るべき (enormous), 怖い (eerie, frightening, scary), 凄まじい (absurd, amazing, awful, fierce, terrible, terrific, tremendous), 凄い (amazing, great, terrible, terrific, to a great extent, wonderful), 凄じい (absurd, amazing, awful, fierce, terrible, terrific, tremendous), 大変 (awful, terrible, very). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | たいへ" (awful, opposite side, terrible, very), すさまじい (absurd, amazing, awful, fierce, terrible, terrific, tremendous), す"い (amazing, great, terrible, terrific, to a great extent, wonderful), おそろしい (terrible), おそるべき (enormous), きき (brilliance, crisis, damage, demolishing, destroying, disliking, displeasure, effective, effectiveness, efficacy, ghastly, machinery and tools, offense, the Kojiki and Nihonshoki, work), "わい (eerie, frightening, scary). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | skrekkelig (abysmal, frightful, gruesome, hideous, horrible, terrible), forferdelig (abysmal, alarmed, dismayed, dumbfounded, gruesome, horrible, horrifying, put out of countenance, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | teribel (abysmal, gruesome, horrible, terrible), horibel (abysmal, gruesome, horrible, terrible), feroso (abysmal, dismal, dreary, ghastly, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, terrible), feros (abysmal, dismal, dreary, ghastly, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, terrible), abominabel (abhorrent, abject, abominable, abysmal, alien, awful, disdainful, disgusting, dismal, dreary, ghastly, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, nauseous, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | eadfuldray straszny (abysmal, gruesome, horrible, terrible), okropny (abysmal, gruesome, horrible, terrible). (various references) terrível (abysmal, awesome, awful, deadly, desperate, dire, direful, dread, eldritch, fearful, fearsome, fell, frightful, gruesome, horrible, lurid, parlous, redoubtable, redoubted, terrible, terrific, tragic, tremendous, ungodly). (various references) fioros (atrocious, fell, ferocious, fierce, horrible, macabre, truculent), înfricoşãtor (awful, dire, fearsome, frightening, horrent, horrible, horrifying, terrifying), înfricoşat (fearful, frightened, funky, panicky), îngrozitor (abominable, appalling, awful, awfully, beastly, desperate, direful, grisly, hideous, horrible, shocking, terrible, terribly, terrific, tremendous), înspãimântãtor (appalling, awsome, dread, fearful, formidable, frightful, frightfully, ghastly, ghostlike, horrible, horrid, howling, terrible, terrific, tremendous, unearthly), amar (bitter, bitterly, bitterness, gall, poignant, rude, salt, severe, sore, sour, suffering), amarnic (bitterly, grievous, hard, terrible), crâncen (awful, ferocious, fiery, terrible, terrific), crunt (awful, bloodthirsty, bloody, brutal, cruel, horrible, sharp, terrible, violent), înfiorãtor (awful, awfully, creepy, dread, dreadfully, foully, gruesome, terrible), feroce (awful, barbarous, bloodthirsty, brutal, cruel, fearful, ferocious, ferociously, fierce, inhuman, ruthless, savage, savagely, truculent, unmerciful), ucigãtor (baneful, cut throat, homicidal, killing, murderous, murderously, pestilent, terrible), groaznic (appalling, awful, awfully, baleful, desperate, dire, foul, frightful, ghastly, grim, groovy, gruesome, horrendous, horrent, horrible, horribly, horrid, howling, lousy, miserable, miserably, monstrous, sad, scary, shocking, terrible, terribly, vile), grozav (a, almighty, atrocious, awful, awfully, bally, beastly, bully, classy, clinking, Dandy, desperate, exceedingly, excessively, famous, fell, first rate, formidable, frightful, gee, ghastly, grand, horrible, horrid, immense, immensely, jolly, killing, like blazes, like hell, lovely, mad, magnificent, mightily, nicely, nifty, plush, plushy, proper, ripping, some, stunning, swell, terrible, terribly, terrific, thundering, topping, tremendous, tremendously, uncommonly, vastly, whacking), neplãcut (acrid, annoying, bad, beastly, bothersome, brackish, dark, disagreeable, forbidding, hard, horrid, ill-favored, ill-favoured, nasty, niggling, objectionable, obnoxious, obnoxiously, offensive, offensively, provoking, snuffy, sorry, ugly, unlucky, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unwelcome), plictisitor (boring, boringly, dead, dry, dull, dully, flat, heavy, irksome, jejune, languorous, long winded, long-spun, monotonous, monotonously, pedestrian, pesky, pestersome, pestiferous, repetitious, repetitive, sententious, slow, tedious, tediously, tiresome, trying, weary), respingãtor (abhorrent, awful, awfully, disagreeable, dreadfully, forbidding, foul, fulsome, hideous, infamous, obnoxious, obscene, odious, odiousness, offensive, pestilent, rebarbative, repellent, repulsive, repulsively, scurvy, unprepossessing, verminous), scârbos (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, bloody, detestable, disagreeable, disgusting, foul, fulsome, ghastly, loathsome, loathsomely, nasty, nauseous, repugnant, repulsive, sickening, unpleasant, verminous, vile), supãrãtor (annoying, bad, bothersome, disappointing, grating, hurtful, importunate, inconvenient, inopportune, intrusively, invidious, irksome, irritating, irritatingly, jumpy, mischief-makering, niggling, obtrusively, painful, provoking, provokingly, tedious, troublesome, unfortunate, unlucky, unwelcome, vexatious, vexing), teribil (awful, awfully, damnably, direful, exceedingly, excruciating, extraordinary, fearsome, formidable, frightful, ghastly, like old boot, terrible, terribly, terrific, tremendous), cumplit (atrocious, cruel, eerie, fell, ferocious, fierce, grievous, horrendous, mad, monstrous, outrageous, severe, terrible, utter, uttermost). (various references) очень плохой (unspeakable, woesome, worse than death). (various references) uamhasach (awful, horrible, shocking), uamharr (atrocious, terrible), oillteil (disgusting, horrific), fuathasach (terrible; prodigious). (various references) užasan (appalling, atrocious, awful, frightful, horrible, shocking, terrible), strahovit (fearsome, frightful, horrible, scary, terrible, terrific), strašan (almighty, awful, dire, direful, fearsome, formidable, frightful, horrible, horrid, howling, redoubtable, redoubted, terrible, terrific). (various references) terrible (awful, devastating, dire, dirty, dread, eerie, evil, fearful, ghastly, gruesome, hellish, hideous, horrible, horrid, jolly, lousy, lurid, outrageous, splitting, terrible, terror, unholy, wicked), espantoso (amazing, appaling, appalling, dread, frightening, frightful, gruesome, hideous, nerve racking, scarey, scary, shocking, stark, terrifying). (various references) förskräcklig (abysmal, apalling, appalling, desperate, dire, fearful, fearsome, frightful, gruesome, horrendous, horrible, shocking, terrible, tremendous, unholy), ryslig (atrocious, gruesome, horrible, horrific, plaguey, plaguy), hemsk (abysmal, agonizing, alarmed, atrocious, awful, bloodcurdling, creepy, dire, dismal, dismayed, dreary, dumbfounded, eerie, eery, fell, frantic, frightful, ghastly, ghoulish, grisly, gruesome, hair raising, harrowing, hideous, horrible, horrid, horrific, lurid, put out of countenance, terrible, terrific, uncanny, weird, wicked). (various references) น่าสะพรึ่งกลัว. (various references) ucuz polisiye roman (penny dreadful). (various references) elhenз (frightful, terrible). (various references) сенсаційний детективний роман, огидний (abhorrent, abject, abominable, accursed, accurst, antipathetic, antipathetical, atrocious, beastly, bilious, brackish, brutal, carrion, damnable, damned, detestable, disgusting, evil, execrable, filthy, ghoulish, grim, hanging, heinous, hideous, horrible, horrid, ill-favored, ill-favoured, loathful, loathsome, mawkish, mucky, nasty, nauseating, nauseous, nefandous, noisome, obnoxious, obscene, odious, offensive, pesky, poisonous, putrid, rank, repellent, repulsive, revolting, shocking, snotty, sordid, sour, stinking, underfoot, wicked), надзвичайний (abysmal, dense, egregious, exceeding, exceptional, extreme, prodigious, snorting, uncommon, unusual, water, woundy), жахливий (abominable, abysmal, almighty, appalling, atrocious, awesome, awful, blinking, blood-curdling, blue, chronic, damnable, damned, deadly, desperate, deuced, devilish, dire, direful, eerie, eery, eldritch, enormous, fearful, fearsome, ferocious, flagrant, frightening, frightful, grievous, gruesome, horrible, horrific, iniquitous, macabre, monstrous, plaguy, scarey, scary, towering, tragic, tremendous, ungodly, wretched). (various references) dễ sợ (dread, gaunt, terrible), rất xấu; hết sức rầy r , rất khó chịu, rất bực mình, l m mệt mỏi, khiếp (dread), chán ngấy (jaded, satiate). (various references) ofnadwy (awful, terrible), arswydus (awful, fearful, horrible, terrible), abrwysgl (huge). (various references) hach k'as (abysmal, dangerous, gruesome, horrible, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | horrendas, horrende, horrendi, horrendos, horrendum, horrendus, horridus, terribilis. (various references) |
| Old English | 450-1100 | atelic, egeslic. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Genesis Chapter 28, Verse 17 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Kai efobhqh kai eipen wV foberoV o topoV outoV ouk estin touto all' h oikoV qeou kai auth h pulh tou ouranou |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Pavensque quam terribilis inquit est locus iste non est hic aliud nisi domus Dei et porta caeli |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | And dredynge seide, Howe feerful is this place! Here is nother but the hows of God, and the yaat of heuene. |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | And he was afrayde and sayde how fearfull is this place? it is none other but euen the house of God and the gate of heaue. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is no other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | And fear came on him, and he said, This is a holy place; this is nothing less than the house of God and the doorway of heaven. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Genesis Chapter 28, Verse 17 |
| Cebuano | Ug nahadlok siya ug miingon: Pagkamakalilisang niining dapita! kini dili lain kondili ang balay sa Dios, ug kini mao gayud ang ganghaan sa langit. |
| Croatian | Potresen, uzviknu: "Kako je strašno ovo mjesto! Zaista, ovo je kuæa Božja, ovo su vrata nebeska!" |
| Danish | Og han blev angst og sagde: "Hvor forfærdeligt er dog dette Sted! Visselig, her er Guds Hus, her er Himmelens Port!" |
| Dutch | En hij vreesde, en zeide: Hoe vreselijk is deze plaats! Dit is niet dan een huis Gods, en dit is de poort des hemels! |
| Finnish | Ja pelko valtasi hänet, ja hän sanoi: "Kuinka peljättävä onkaan tämä paikka! Tässä on varmasti Jumalan huone ja taivaan portti." |
| French | Il eut peur, et dit: Que ce lieu est redoutable! C`est ici la maison de Dieu, c`est ici la porte des cieux! |
| German | und fürchtete sich und sprach: Wie heilig ist diese Stätte! Hier ist nichts anderes als Gottes Haus, und hier ist die Pforte des Himmels. |
| Hungarian | Megrémüle annak okáért és monda: Mily rettenetes ez a hely; nem egyéb ez, hanem Istennek háza, és az égnek kapuja. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Ia menjadi takut lalu berkata, "Alangkah seramnya tempat ini! Pastilah ini rumah Allah, pintu gerbang surga." |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Maka ketakutanlah ia seraya katanya: Bagaimana hebatnya tempat ini! bukannya lain, melainkan rumah Allah juga dan inilah pintu sorga adanya. |
| Italian | Ebbe timore e disse: «Quanto è terribile questo luogo! Questa è proprio la casa di Dio, questa è la porta del cielo». |
| Maori | Na ka wehi ia, kamea, Ano te wehi o tenei wahi! ehara tenei i te mea ke atu i te whare o te Atua, a ko te kuwaha tenei ki te rangi. |
| Norwegian | Og det kom en frykt over ham, og han sa: Hvor forferdelig er ikke dette sted ! Her er visselig Guds hus, her er himmelens port. |
| Portuguese | E temeu, e disse: Quão terrível é este lugar! Este não é outro lugar senão a casa de Deus; e esta é a porta dos céus. |
| Rumanian | I -a fost fricq, wi a zis: ,,Ckt de knfricowat este locul acesta! Aici este casa lui Dumnezeu, aici este poarta cerurilor!`` |
| Spanish | Él tuvo miedo y dijo: --¡Cuán temible es este lugar! No es otra cosa que casa de Dios y puerta del cielo. |
| Swedish | Och han betogs av fruktan och sade: "Detta måste vara en helig plats, här bor förvisso Gud, och här är himmelens port." |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "dreadful": dreadfully, dreadfulness, dreadfulnesses, dreadfuls. (additional references) | |
| |
"Dreadful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: deadful, dreadfull, dreadfuls, dreaful, dredful, roadful. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "dreadful" (pronounced dre"dful) |
| 4 | -d f u l | mindful, needful. |
| 3 | -f u l | apocryphal, artful, awful, baffle, baleful, bashful, beautiful, blissful, boastful, bountiful, careful, cheerful, colorful, deceitful, delightful, disdainful, disgraceful, disrespectful, distasteful, distrustful, doleful, doubtful, duffel, dutiful, eventful, faithful, falafel, fanciful, fateful, fearful, fistful, fitful, flavorful, forceful, forgetful, fretful, frightful, fruitful, gainful, gleeful, graceful, grateful, harmful, hateful, healthful, helpful, hopeful, houseful, hurtful, insightful, joyful, kerfuffle, lawful, lustful, masterful, meaningful, merciful, mistrustful, mournful, muffle, neglectful, painful, panful, peaceful, pitiful, playful, plentiful, powerful, prayerful, purposeful, raffle, regretful, remorseful, resentful, reshuffle, resourceful, respectful, restful, riffle, rifle, rightful, rueful, ruffle, scornful, scuffle, shameful, shuffle, sinful, skillful, sorrowful, soulful, spiteful, stifle, stressful, successful, suspenseful, tactful, tasteful, tearful, thankful, thoughtful, trifle, triumphal, truffle, truthful, tuneful, uneventful, unfaithful, ungrateful, unhealthful, unhelpful, unlawful, unsuccessful, untruthful, useful, vengeful, waffle, wasteful, watchful, willful, wishful, wistful, woeful, wonderful, worshipful, wrongful, youthful, zestful. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-d-e-f-l-r-u" | |
-1 letter: dareful, defraud. | |
-2 letters: aulder, earful, farded, fardel, ferula, feudal, flared, fuddle, furled, ladder, larded, lauded, lauder, raddle, ruddle. | |
-3 letters: adder, addle, alder, dared, dedal, dread, dural, dured, faded, fader, fared, farle, fauld, feral, feuar, flare, flued, fraud, laded, lader, lured, readd, ruled, udder, ureal. | |
-4 letters: alef, auld, dale, dare, dead, deaf, deal, dear, delf. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-d-e-f-l-r-u" | |
+1 letter: dreadfuls. | |
+2 letters: dreadfully. | |
+3 letters: fluoridated, lifeguarded. | |
+4 letters: disregardful, dreadfulness. | |
+5 letters: underinflated. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)44 72 65 61 64 66 75 6C |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
|
| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
|
| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
|
| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
|
Morse Code (1836) (references)-.. .-. . .- -.. ..-. ..- .-.. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
|
Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000100 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 01100110 01110101 01101100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)D r e a d f u l |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0044 0072 0065 0061 0064 0066 0075 006C |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
|
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3884716770728778 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Quotations: Speeches 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Bible Trace | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Orthography | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
