Word.ws English Dictionary

dreadfully

/ˈdɹɛd.fʊl.i/

dreadfully adverb: in a dreadful manner; terribly.

Adverb

dreadfully (comparative more dreadfully, superlative most dreadfully)

  1. In a dreadful manner; terribly.
    • You behaved dreadfully yesterday night
    • The smellful old heathen was snoring dreadfully.1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 222
  2. (dated) Exceptionally, eminently, very much.
    • That restaurant seems dreadfully expensive.
    • At that moment a curious crack sounded inside the statue, as if something had broken. The fact is that the leaden heart had snapped right in two. It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost.1888, Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales

dreadfully meaning in Malayalam and Kannada

dreadfully in Malayalam

ഭയങ്കരമായി, ഭീമമായി, ദാരുണമായി

dreadfully in Kannada

ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಭಯಾನಕವಾಗಿ, ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಭೀಕರವಾಗಿ

Examples of dreadfully in a sentence

  • It’ll be perfect to cover up those dreadfully unsightly scars,’ said Unctuous pointing at Guthry’s forehead.
  • This animal may be a fast runner, but it has been a dreadfully slow evolver.
  • I tried to read George Moore last night, and was dreadfully bored.

All 13 example sentences with dreadfully

Forms of dreadfully

comparativemore dreadfully
superlativemost dreadfully

Origin of dreadfully

Inherited from Middle English dredfully, dradefullich, dredefullich; equivalent to dreadful + -ly.

Questions about dreadfully

What does dreadfully mean?
Dreadfully means in a dreadful manner; terribly.
What is dreadfully in Malayalam?
Dreadfully in Malayalam is ഭയങ്കരമായി, ഭീമമായി, ദാരുണമായി. See Dreadfully meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is dreadfully?
Dreadfully is an adverb.
How do you pronounce dreadfully?
Dreadfully is pronounced /ˈdɹɛd.fʊl.i/.

Words near dreadfully in the dictionary

  1. dreadeth
  2. dreadful
  3. dreadfulest
  4. dreadfull
  5. dreadfullest
  6. dreadfully
  7. dreadfulness
  8. dreadfulnesses
  9. dreadfuls
  10. dreadhawk
  11. dreadhawks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dreadfully (page history and authors); dreadfully (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dreadfully (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dreadfully.wav.

Cite this entry: “dreadfully.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dreadfully. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.