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dire
| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | urgent; crucial |
| Synonyms: | acute, burning, clamant, clamorous, climacteric, critical, crying, desperate, drastic, exigent, extreme, immoderate, imperative, importunate, instant, pressing |
| Antonyms: | trivial, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | acute |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very important |
| Synonyms: | afflictive, critical, crucial, dangerous, decisive, desperate, dire, essential, grave, serious, severe, sudden, urgent, vital |
| Notes: | acute is used for a sudden onset and short duration; chronic is for conditions that are slow to develop and of long duration acute is an angle of less than 90 degrees; obtuse is one of more than 90 degrees chronic is contrasted with acute as chronic pain persists over a longer period of time than acute pain and is resistant to most medical treatments |
| Antonyms: | not serious, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | appalling |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | horrifying |
| Synonyms: | alarming, astounding, awful, bad, daunting, dire, disheartening, dismaying, dreadful, fearful, formidable, frightening, frightful, ghastly, grim, grody, gross*, harrowing, heavy*, hideous, horrible, horrid, horrific, intimidating, mean, petrifying, scaring, shocking, terrible, terrifying, the end, unnerving |
| Antonyms: | comforting, encouraging, reassuring, satisfying |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | awful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very bad; terrible |
| Synonyms: | abominable, alarming, appalling, atrocious, deplorable, depressing, dire, disgusting, distressing, dreadful, fearful, frightful, ghastly, grody, gross*, gruesome, grungy, harrowing, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrific, horrifying, nasty, offensive, raunchy, repulsive, shocking, stinking, synthetic, tough, ugly, unpleasant, unsightly |
| Antonyms: | beautiful, good, ok, pleasing |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | baleful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | menacing |
| Synonyms: | calamitous, deadly, dire, evil, foreboding, harmful, hurtful, injurious, malevolent, malignant, noxious, ominous, pernicious, ruinous, sinister, threatening, venomous, vindictive, woeful |
| Notes: | something is baleful that intends or portends harm or injury; something is baneful that produces harm or injury - thus, a glance may be baleful, an herb or poison baneful |
| Antonyms: | advantageous, auspicious, favorable, good, helping, promising |
| Main Entry: | bitter |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | painful, distressing |
| Synonyms: | afflictive, annoying, bad, brutal, calamitous, cruel, dire, disagreeable, displeasing, distasteful, disturbing, galling, grievous, hard, harsh, heartbreaking, hurtful, inclement, intemperate, intense, merciless, offensive, poignant, provoking, rigorous, rugged, ruthless, savage, severe, sharp, stinging, unpalatable, unpleasant, vexatious, woeful |
| Antonyms: | good, helping, wonderful |
| Main Entry: | burning |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | important |
| Synonyms: | acute, clamant, clamorous, compelling, critical, crucial, crying, dire, essential, exigent, imperative, importunate, instant, pressing, significant, urgent, vital |
| Antonyms: | unimportant |
| Main Entry: | calamitous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | disastrous; tragic |
| Synonyms: | adverse, afflictive, blighting, cataclysmic, catastrophic, deadly, deplorable, devastating, dire, fatal, grievous, harmful, heartbreaking, lamentable, messy, pernicious, regrettable, ruinous, unfavorable, unfortunate, woeful |
| Antonyms: | blessed, comforting, favorable, fortunate, happy, joyous, wonderful |
| Main Entry: | climactic/climacteric |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | decisive |
| Synonyms: | acute, climactical, critical, crucial, desperate, dire, paramount, peak |
| Antonyms: | anticlimacteric, anticlimactic, bathetic, indecisive, trivial, undecided |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
