Words / B2

DREDFL/ˈdredfl/

Dreadful means extremely bad or unpleasant: a dreadful mistake; dreadful weather. Terrible and awful are close twins; all three are too vague alone in a write-up. Calling the flood dreadful is not analysis; quote the peak flow. Mix-up: dreadful vs dreadful as a review cliché; dread as a noun; do not leave dreadful as the whole evaluation.

Meaning

Extremely bad or unpleasant.

Examples

• “Calling the flood dreadful is not analysis; quote the peak flow, the geography paper said.”
• “A dreadful warning in the minutes still needs the named risk, the H&S brief said.”

Good to know

a dreadful + noun; dreadfully. Close: terrible / awful. Trap: a cliché with no figure. Geography, news, and H&S. Extremely bad — still quote the figure; too vague alone in a write-up.

Near in meaning

terrible, awful, appalling

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