dreadful meaning and examples thumbnail

dreadful meaning and examples

2025-08-24

Meaning

Dreadful means very bad, unpleasant, or causing fear. It can describe something terrible in quality, shocking, or frightening.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: Adjective

  • Used to describe experiences, situations, events, or feelings that are unpleasant or awful.

  • Typical structures:

    • "a dreadful mistake"
    • "feel dreadful"
    • "look dreadful"

Common Phrases

  • dreadful mistake – a very bad or serious error
  • dreadful accident – a terrible accident
  • feel dreadful – feel very bad (physically or emotionally)
  • dreadful weather – very unpleasant weather

Collocations

  • dreadful experience
  • dreadful news
  • dreadful pain
  • dreadful tragedy
  • dreadful performance

Examples

  1. He made a dreadful mistake during the meeting.
  2. The news of the accident was truly dreadful.
  3. She felt dreadful after catching the flu.
  4. We had dreadful weather during our holiday.
  5. The movie was dreadful and boring.
  6. It was a dreadful experience that she will never forget.
  7. His handwriting is absolutely dreadful.
  • Terrible
  • Awful
  • Horrible
  • Appalling
  • Shocking
  • Dire