Need another word that means the same as “dire”? Find 44 synonyms and 30 related words for “dire” in this overview.
The synonyms of “Dire” are: desperate, awful, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terrible, appalling, frightful, horrible, atrocious, grim, unspeakable, distressing, harrowing, alarming, shocking, outrageous, urgent, pressing, crying, sore, grave, serious, extreme, acute, drastic, ominous, portentous, gloomy, sinister, substandard, bad, deficient, defective, faulty, imperfect, inferior, mediocre
According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, “dire” as an adjective can have the following definitions:
| acute | Denoting or designed for patients with an acute form of a disease. An acute ward. |
| alarming | Worrying or disturbing. Our countryside is disappearing at an alarming rate. |
| appalling | Causing consternation. His conduct was appalling. |
| atrocious | Of a very poor quality; extremely bad or unpleasant. An atrocious automobile accident. |
| awful | Extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact. An awful speech. |
| bad | Feeling physical discomfort or pain tough is occasionally used colloquially for bad. A bad mistake. |
| crying | Demanding attention. A crying baby. |
| defective | Having a defect. A defective appliance. |
| deficient | Of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement. Deficient in common sense. |
| desperate | Desperately determined. There is a desperate shortage of teachers. |
| direful | Extremely bad; dreadful. A career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked. |
| distressing | Causing distress or worry or anxiety. Distressing or disturbing news. |
| drastic | Forceful and extreme and rigorous. Drastic measures. |
| dread | Greatly feared dreadful. Polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was. |
| dreaded | Causing fear or dread or terror. Polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was. |
| dreadful | Causing or involving great suffering, fear, or unhappiness; extremely bad or serious. The weather was dreadful. |
| extreme | Of the greatest possible degree or extent or intensity. Groups of his more extreme supporters rioted in front of parliament. |
| faulty | Having a defect. Faulty logic. |
| fearful | Lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted- P.B.Shelley. A fearful glance. |
| fearsome | Frightening, especially in appearance. The cat mewed displaying a fearsome set of teeth. |
| frightening | Making someone afraid or anxious; terrifying. A frightening experience. |
| frightful | Provoking horror- Winston Churchill. A frightful mistake. |
| gloomy | Causing dejection. A gloomy corridor badly lit by oil lamps. |
| grave | Of great gravity or crucial import; requiring serious thought. Grave responsibilities. |
| grim | Depressing or worrying to consider. His grim expression. |
| harrowing | Extremely painful. It was a harrowing experience. |
| horrendous | Extremely unpleasant, horrifying, or terrible. She suffered horrendous injuries. |
| horrible | Causing or likely to cause horror; shocking. The tea tasted horrible. |
| horrific | Grossly offensive to decency or morality; causing horror. Horrific injuries. |
| imperfect | Not perfect; faulty or incomplete. An imperfect grasp of English. |
| inferior | Of low or inferior quality. Inferior goods. |
| mediocre | Of only average quality; not very good. He is an enthusiastic if mediocre painter. |
| ominous | Giving the worrying impression that something bad is going to happen; threateningly inauspicious. Ominous rumblings of discontent. |
| outrageous | Very bold and unusual and rather shocking. The outrageous claims made by the previous government. |
| portentous | Done in a pompously or overly solemn manner so as to impress. The author s portentous moralizings. |
| pressing | Expressing something strongly or persistently. He had pressing business in Scotland. |
| serious | Acting or speaking sincerely and in earnest, rather than in a joking or half-hearted manner. A serious book. |
| shocking | Causing indignation or disgust; offensive. Shocking behaviour. |
| sinister | Giving the impression that something harmful or evil is happening or will happen. There might be a more sinister motive behind the government s actions. |
| sore | (of a part of one’s body) painful or aching. We re in sore need of him. |
| substandard | Below the usual or required standard. Substandard spellings. |
| terrible | Intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality. Terrible handwriting. |
| unspeakable | Too bad or horrific to express in words. I felt an unspeakable tenderness towards her. |
| urgent | Of an action or event done or arranged in response to an urgent situation. She needs urgent treatment. |
| abominable | Unequivocally detestable- Edmund Burke. Abominable workmanship. |
| atrocious | Provoking horror. Atrocious taste. |
| awful | Awfully very. We re an awful long way from the motorway. |
| bitter | Beer that is strongly flavoured with hops and has a bitter taste brewed by top fermentation. Bitter about the divorce. |
| dolorous | Feeling or expressing great sorrow or distress. A dolorous and repetitive tale of atrocity. |
| dreadful | Exceptionally bad or displeasing. There s been a dreadful accident. |
| enormity | A grave crime or sin. In careful usage the noun enormity is not used to express the idea of great size. |
| frightful | Extremely distressing. There s been a most frightful accident. |
| grave | A place where a broken or discarded object lies. Faced a grave decision in a time of crisis. |
| grief | An instance or cause of intense sorrow. Her death was a great grief to John. |
| grievous | Shockingly brutal or cruel. Grievous bodily harm. |
| grim | Causing dejection. The grim task of burying the victims. |
| heartrending | Causing or marked by grief or anguish. The heartrending words of Rabin s granddaughter. |
| hellish | Extremely difficult or unpleasant. An unearthly hellish landscape. |
| horrible | Very unpleasant. A horrible massacre. |
| horrific | Grossly offensive to decency or morality; causing horror. Horrific conditions in the mining industry. |
| introspection | The examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes. Quiet introspection can be extremely valuable. |
| lamentable | (of circumstances or conditions) very bad; deplorable. The industry is in a lamentable state. |
| mournful | Expressing sorrow. Mournful music. |
| sad | Of things that make you feel sad. I was sad and subdued. |
| sadly | To a regrettable extent; regrettably. Sadly the forests of Sulawesi are now under threat. |
| serious | Of great consequence. Are you serious or joking. |
| severe | Severely simple. A severe test of stamina. |
| solemn | Dignified and somber in manner or character and committed to keeping promises. The judge was solemn as he pronounced sentence. |
| sorrowful | Feeling or showing grief. Sorrowful widows. |
| terrible | Exceptionally bad or displeasing. Despite passing my driving test first time I m a terrible driver. |
| tragedy | The dramatic genre represented by tragedies. A tragedy that killed 95 people. |
| tragic | Very bad or inadequate. At school she s not a complete tragic but she s not exactly popular either. |
| unpleasant | Causing discomfort, unhappiness, or revulsion; disagreeable. When drunk he could become very unpleasant. |
| weighty | Of great seriousness and importance. A weighty argument. |
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