dire
Example Sentences
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For Debbie Wills, who has spent nearly 40 years working with black lung patients at Valley Health Systems, the situation is all the more dire because the disease is "totally preventable."
From Barron's β Aug. 21, 2026
One fifth-generation coracle fisherman described the situation in Carmarthenshire as "dire" after only catching one fish in the three-month season between May and July.
From BBC β Aug. 20, 2026
The need for R&R is especially dire during wartime, when their stations take on life-and-death intensity.
From Slate β Aug. 19, 2026
The move comes as the Willowbrook hospital faces a dire financial picture, as The Times reported this month.
From Los Angeles Times β Aug. 12, 2026
“Good luck to you,” he says, as if bestowing a dire prognosis.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
Rademacher said the showers will continue into at least Monday, with the midweek looking a bit direr.
From Seattle Times β Mar. 2, 2024
The TV series balances humor and tragedy like the film did; however, it’s clear in the episodes that things are direr now.
From Los Angeles Times β Jun. 14, 2023
It’s just that recent-years playoffs might have made Georgia’s plight seem direr.
From Washington Post β Dec. 29, 2021
Our situation is direr as our modern pollutants destroy the planet and once defeated ancient diseases reemerge to kill people.
From Salon β Apr. 28, 2019
No one could have been in direr poverty than he when the steamboat landed him in New York in 1869.
From Edison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer
A recent drought saw the three direst years on record, which dropped reservoirs around the state to dangerously low levels and prompted mandatory rationing and even caused some hydroelectric power plants to shut down.
From Seattle Times β May 16, 2024
This is an ancient and nearly universal idiom that resurfaces, in different forms, in different places, and at different times, in the direst of circumstances.
From Salon β May 4, 2024
Unison's head of local government Mike Short said town halls were in the "direst of states".
From BBC β Aug. 21, 2023
Equally miraculous is a nonfiction movie forged in the direst of challenges that never comes across like an issue-driven medical narrative.
From Los Angeles Times β Aug. 18, 2023
After rain, or when snowfalls thaw, the streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust into the direst mud.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Vocabulary lists containing dire
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 2
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com β one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act I
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com β we'll help you make the most of your study time!
