direful
adjective
direful is spelled D-I-R-E-F-U-L: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 72 million words in written English, the 269,040th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, direful means “Fearful, terrible” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in direful?
| Letters | 7: D-I-R-E-F-U-L |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 72 million words; the 269,040th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is direful?
Direful appears about once in every 72 million words in written English, the 269,040th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Forms of direful
- more direful comparative
- most direful superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does direful mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Fearful, terrible.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does direful come from?
From dire + -ful.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).