dire

/'daiə/

Thân thiện

A dire storm approaches the coastal village.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Extremely serious or urgent; dreadful; terrible: Used to describe a situation, event, or condition that is of the utmost severity, often causing great fear or suffering.
   • Warning of or having dreadful or terrible consequences; calamitous: Used to describe something that portends disaster or extreme misfortune.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:
  • The country is facing a dire economic crisis.
  • The report painted a dire picture of the environmental situation.
  • They were in dire need of food and clean water after the flood.
  • His warnings about the company's future proved to be dire but accurate.

Advanced Usage

• "dire consequences": extremely serious and negative results.
  • Failure to act could have dire consequences for the entire region.
• "dire straits": a state of extreme distress or desperate circumstances.
  • The loss of funding left the research project in dire straits.
• "dire warning": a very serious and urgent caution about a potential disaster.
  • The scientist issued a dire warning about climate change.

Variants and Related Words

• Direful (adj, literary): Dreadful; terrible.
  • The tale was one of direful vengeance.
• Direly (adv): In a dire manner; desperately.
  • The region is direly underfunded.

Synonyms

• Dreadful
• Terrible
• Awful
• Horrendous
• Fearful
• Desperate (in the sense of extremely serious)
• Grievous

Antonyms

• Excellent
• Wonderful
• Slight (in the sense of minor)
• Insignificant

Related Phrases

• In dire need of: Desperately needing something essential.
  • The refugees are in dire need of medical supplies.
• A dire situation/emergency: An extremely serious and urgent state of affairs.
  • The earthquake created a dire emergency.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. causing fear or dread or terror
   • the awful war
   • an awful risk
   • dire news
   • a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked
   • the dread presence of the headmaster
   • polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was
   • a dreadful storm
   • a fearful howling
   • horrendous explosions shook the city
   • a terrible curse
2. fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
   • a desperate illness
   • on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel- G.C.Marshall
   • a dire emergency

Từ đồng nghĩa

• desperate