different between dreadful vs unspeakable

dreadful

English

Alternative forms

  • dreadfull
  • dredful (obsolete)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /?d??d.f?l/

Etymology

From Middle English dredful, dredfull, dredeful (also dreful), equivalent to dread +? -ful.

Adjective

dreadful (comparative more dreadful, superlative most dreadful)

  1. Full of something causing dread, whether
    1. Genuinely horrific, awful, or alarming; dangerous, risky.
      • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter 23:
        "...Aunt Em will surely think something dreadful has happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning..."
    2. (hyperbolic) Unpleasant, awful, very bad (also used as an intensifier).
      • 1682, T. Creech's translation of Lucretius, De Natura Rerum, Book II, 52:
        Here some... Look dreadful gay in their own sparkling blood.
    3. (obsolete) Awesome, awe-inspiring, causing feelings of reverence.
  2. (obsolete) Full of dread, whether
    1. Scared, afraid, frightened.
    2. Timid, easily frightened.
    3. Reverential, full of pious awe.

Adverb

dreadful (comparative more dreadful, superlative most dreadful)

  1. (informal) Dreadfully.

Usage notes

The senses of "dreadful" synonymous with "afraid" similarly use the infinitive or the preposition "of": they were dreadful to build or the boy was dreadful of his majesty. These senses are, however, now obsolete.

When used as an intensifier, "dreadful" is actually a form of the adverb "dreadfully" and thus considered informal or vulgar.

Synonyms

  • See Thesaurus:frightening
  • See Thesaurus:bad

Derived terms

  • dreadfully
  • dreadfulness

Translations

Noun

dreadful (plural dreadfuls)

  1. A shocker: a report of a crime written in a provokingly lurid style.
  2. A journal or broadsheet printing such reports.
  3. A shocking or sensational crime.

Derived terms

  • penny dreadful

Further reading

  • Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

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unspeakable

English

Etymology

From Middle English unspekable, equivalent to un- +? speakable.

Pronunciation

Adjective

unspeakable (comparative more unspeakable, superlative most unspeakable)

  1. Incapable of being spoken or uttered
    Synonyms: unutterable, ineffable, inexpressible
    • 1855-1882, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, book xv,
      The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows.
  2. Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
    • 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, ch. 3,
      The miser will remember his hoard of gold, the robber his ill-gotten wealth, the angry and revengeful and merciless murderers their deeds of blood and violence in which they revelled, the impure and adulterous the unspeakable and filthy pleasures in which they delighted.
  3. Extremely bad or objectionable.
    an unspeakable fool
    an unspeakable play
    • 1926, H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider,
      Yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.

Synonyms

  • See also Thesaurus:indescribable

Derived terms

  • unspeakably
  • unspeakableness

Translations

References

  • unspeakable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • “unspeakable” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  • "unspeakable" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
  • "unspeakable" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
  • “unspeakable”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
  • "unspeakable" at Rhymezone (Datamuse, 2006).
  • Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)

Scots

Etymology

un- +? speak +? -able

Adjective

unspeakable (comparative mair unspeakable, superlative maist unspeakable)

  1. unspeakable

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