Skip to main content
PlainSpell

dreadful

/ˈdɹɛd.fl̩/adjective, adverb, noun

dreadful is spelled D-R-E-A-D-F-U-L: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, dreadful means “Genuinely horrific, awful, or alarming; dangerous, risky” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dreadful?

Letters8: D-R-E-A-D-F-U-L
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.6 times per million words; the 11,870th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 dreadful?

Dreadful appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th 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).

How do you pronounce dreadful?

  • /ˈdɹɛd.fl̩/

Dreadful 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: En-us-dreadful.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of dreadful

  • more dreadful comparative
  • most dreadful superlative
  • dreadfuls plural

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

What does dreadful mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Genuinely horrific, awful, or alarming; dangerous, risky.

  2. 2

    Unpleasant, awful, very bad (also used as an intensifier).

    Here some... Look dreadful gay in their own sparkling blood.

  3. 3

    obsoleteAwesome, awe-inspiring, causing feelings of reverence.

  4. 4

    obsoleteScared, afraid, frightened.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTimid, easily frightened.

  6. 6

    obsoleteReverential, full of pious awe.

adverb

  1. 1

    informalDreadfully.

noun

  1. 1

    A shocker: a report of a crime written in a provokingly lurid style.

  2. 2

    A journal or broadsheet printing such reports.

  3. 3

    A shocking or sensational crime.

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

Dreadful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchredoutable, affreux, terrible (causing dread)
Germanfurchtbar, schrecklich (causing dread)
Portuguesehorrível, pavoroso, terrível, temível, amedrontador (causing dread)
Spanishespantoso, pavoroso, empavoreciente, empavorecedor (causing dread), apavorado, pavorido (full of dread)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dreadful come from?

From Middle English dredful, dredfull, dredeful (also dreful). By surface analysis, dread + -ful.

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

What to look up after dreadful