Word.ws English Dictionary

dreading

/ˈdɹɛdɪŋ/

dreading is the present participle and gerund of dread.

Meaning of dread

Verb

dread (third-person singular simple present dreads, present participle dreading, simple past and past participle dreaded)

  1. (transitive) To fear greatly.
  2. To anticipate with fear.
    • I'm dreading getting the results of the test, as it could decide my whole life.
  3. (intransitive) To be in dread, or great fear.
    • Dread not, neither be afraid of them.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 1:29
  4. (transitive) To style (the hair) into dreadlocks.

See all 12 meanings of dread

Words formed from dreading

Words that rhyme with dreading

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dreading

What is dreading the present participle and gerund of?
Dreading is the present participle and gerund of dread.
How do you pronounce dreading?
Dreading is pronounced /ˈdɹɛdɪŋ/.

Words near dreading in the dictionary

  1. dreadhawks
  2. dreadhead
  3. dreadheads
  4. dreadiest
  5. dreadily
  6. dreading
  7. dreadingly
  8. dreadless
  9. dreadlessly
  10. dreadlessness
  11. dreadlock

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dreading (page history and authors); dread (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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Cite this entry: “dreading.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dreading. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.