Standard Lemma guide

direful

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Fearful, terrible.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

causing fear or dread or terror

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the awful war
  • an awful risk
  • dire news
  • a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked
  • the dread presence of the headmaster
  • polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was
  • a dreadful storm
  • a fearful howling
  • horrendous explosions shook the city
  • a terrible curse

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: awful, dire, dread(a), dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terrible

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From dire + -ful.