1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Direful

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

adj. Inspiring dread; terrible.

adj. Foreshadowing evil or disaster; ominous.

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

adj. inspiring fear; fearful, terrible

adj. portending disaster; portentous; ominous

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

adj. Dire; dreadful; terrible; calamitous; woeful

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

Characterized by or fraught with something dreadful; of a dire nature or appearance: as, a direful fiend; a direful misfortune.

Synonyms See list under dire.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

adj. causing fear or dread or terror

Word Usage

"While you diligently pursued that favorite phantom of yours, called profits, and moralized about that favorite fetich of yours, called competition, even greater and more direful things have been accomplished by combination."

Equivalent

alarming

Synonym

Words with the same meaning

dire dreadful terrible calamitous woeful

Same Context

Words that are found in similar contexts

direst dire gravest irretrievable calamitous frightful cruelest unforeseen impending woeful