dreadfully

1. 1.

   of a dreadful kind

   “there was a dreadfully bloody accident on the road this morning”

   Synonymsawfullyhorribly
2. 2.

   in a dreadful manner

   “as he looks at the mess he has left behind he must wonder how the Brits so often managed to succeed in the kind of situation where he has so dismally failed”

   Synonymsdismally

Questions about dreadfully

What does dreadfully mean?

dreadfully means "of a dreadful kind". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in dreadfully?

dreadfully has 3 syllables: dread-ful-ly. The stress falls on "dread". In IPA it is /ˈdɹɛdfəli/.

What is another word for dreadfully?

Close synonyms include awfully, horribly, dismally. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is dreadfully a common word?

dreadfully is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.