dreaded

/ˈdɹɛ.dɪd/adjective, verb

dreaded is spelled D-R-E-A-D-E-D: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,297th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, dreaded means “Causing fear, dread, or terror” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dreaded?

Letters	7: D-R-E-A-D-E-D
Syllables	2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	2.2 times per million words; the 18,297th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is dreaded?

Dreaded appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,297th most frequent word form in the list.

dreaded0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dreaded?

/ˈdɹɛ.dɪd/
/ˈdɹɛ.dəd/

Dreaded has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dreaded.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of dreaded

more dreaded comparative
most dreaded superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dreaded mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

1
Causing fear, dread, or terror.
I have got the dreaded flu.
2
Having or wearing dreadlocks.

verb

1
simple past and past participle of dread (a form of dread)