dreadful
/ˈdɹɛd.fl̩/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.66 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A shocker: a report of a crime written in a provokingly lurid style.
Example Sentences
- ""...Aunt Em will surely think something dreadful has happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning...""
- "Here some... Look dreadful gay in their own sparkling blood."
- "[I]ndeed I began ſincerely to hate my ſelf for a Dog, a VVretch that had been a Thief, and a Murtherer; […] I vvent about vvith my Heart full of theſe Thoughts, little better than a diſtracted Fellovv; in ſhort, running headlong into the dreadfulleſt Deſpair, and premeditated nothing but hovv to rid my ſelf out of the VVorld; […] nothing lay upon my Mind for ſeveral Days, but to ſhoot my ſelf into the Head vvith my Piſtol."
- "This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything."
- "After a dreadful performance in the opening 45 minutes, they upped their game after the break..."
- "Shame to the slothful and woe to the weak one. Death to the dreadful who turn to flee. Blood to the tearing, the talon’d, the beaked one. Timor Mortis are We."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: dredful
Usage
Inflected Forms
more dreadful (comparative)
most dreadful (superlative)
dreadfull (alternative, archaic)
dredful (alternative, obsolete)
dreadfuls (plural)