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Dreadful vs Vulgar - What's the difference?

dreadful | vulgar | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between dreadful and vulgar

is that dreadful is causing dread; very bad while vulgar is debased, uncouth, distasteful, obscene.

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)

    vulgar

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Debased, uncouth, distasteful, obscene.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year= 1551 , year_published= 1888 , author= , by= , title= A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society. , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=JmpXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217 , original= , chapter= , section= Part 1 , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Clarendon Press , location= Oxford , editor= , volume= 1 , page= 217 , passage= Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples not onely vulgar , but some appertaynyng to the rule of Algeber. }}
  • * The construction worker made a vulgar suggestion to the girls walking down the street.
  • (classical sense) Having to do with ordinary, common people.
  • * Bishop Fell
  • It might be more useful to the English reader to write in our vulgar language.
  • * Bancroft
  • The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class.
  • * 1860 , G. Syffarth, "A Remarkable Seal in Dr. Abbott's Museum at New York", Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis? , age 265
  • Further, the same sacred name in other monuments precedes the vulgar name of King Takellothis , the sixth of the XXII. Dyn., as we have seen.

    Synonyms

    * (obscene) inappropriate, obscene, debased, uncouth, offensive, ignoble, mean, profane * (ordinary) common, ordinary, popular

    Derived terms

    * (obscene) vulgarity * (ordinary) vulgar fraction, vulgate, Vulgate * vulgar fraction