dire.
Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.
Meaning & usage
Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.
dire omens
Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing.
dire need (of)
Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal.
dire consequences; to be in dire straits
Bad in quality, awful, terrible.
His dire blunder allowed her to checkmate him with her next move.
Ferocious and of intimidating appearance, like a dire wolf.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Latin dīrus (“fearful, ominous”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.