Words / D / General

dread

noun/drɛd/

B1CEFR level
14/100Rarity: common
NeutralRegister

Great fear or apprehension about something that is going to happen.

He was filled with dread at the thought of having to break the news to his parents.

Similar: terror, foreboding, apprehension

Topic: Emotion & the inner life in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: Emotion & the inner life