What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Dreadful vs Monstrous - What's the difference?

dreadful | monstrous | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between dreadful and monstrous

is that dreadful is causing dread; very bad while monstrous is hideous or frightful.

As a noun dreadful

is a shocking or sensational crime.

dreadful

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (archaic) * (l) (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Causing dread; very bad.
  • * 1900 , , (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) Chapter 23
    • "My greatest wish now," she added, "is to get back to Kansas, for Aunt Em will surely think something dreadful has happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning; and unless the crops are better this year than they were last, I am sure Uncle Henry cannot afford it."
  • *, chapter=17
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=Marc Higginson, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Bolton 1-2 Aston Villa , passage=After a dreadful performance in the opening 45 minutes, they upped their game after the break and might have taken at least a point from the match.}}

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "dreadful" is often applied: day, night, state, news, time, secret, storm, mistake, accident, story, dream, havoc, truth, loss, act, life, thought, creature, curse, suffering.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A shocking or sensational crime.
  • A shocking or sensational report of a crime.

    • Derived terms

    * penny dreadful

    References

    * (EtymOnLine)

    monstrous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • hideous or frightful
  • * Shakespeare
    • So bad a death argues a monstrous life.
  • enormously large
    • a monstrous height
    a monstrous ox
  • freakish or grotesque
  • * John Locke
    • a monstrous birth
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • He, therefore, that refuses to do good to them whom he is bound to love is unnatural and monstrous in his affections.
  • of, or relating to a mythical monster; full of monsters
  • * Milton
    • Where thou, perhaps, under the whelming tide / Visitest the bottom of the monstrous world.
  • (obsolete) marvellous; strange

    • Synonyms

    * See also