dread

noun

Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror.

Reverential or respectful fear; awe.

Somebody or something dreaded.

A Rastafarian.

(slang, chiefly in the plural) Clipping of dreadlock. [A single strand of dreadlocks.]

(obsolete) A person highly revered.

(obsolete) Fury; dreadfulness.

(military, nautical, historical, slang) Clipping of dreadnought. [(military, nautical, historical) A battleship, especially of the World War I era, in which most of the firepower is concentrated in large guns that are of the same caliber.]

verb

(transitive) To fear greatly.

To anticipate with fear.

(intransitive) To be in dread, or great fear.

(transitive) To style (the hair) into dreadlocks.

adjective

Terrible; greatly feared; dreaded.

(archaic) Awe-inspiring; held in fearful awe.

Synonyms & related words for dread

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of dread — including fear, apprehension, apprehensiveness, fright, direful, dreadful. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to dread

Explore words related to dread — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include fearful, fearsome, frightening, crawlies, hagride, astraphobia, horripilate, unfearing. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for dread

Common synonyms for dread include fear, apprehension, apprehensiveness, fright, direful, dreadful, trepidation, horror — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.