Synonyms of dire

dire

adjective

1

as in ominous

being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come

a dire forecast of a plunge in stock prices

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ominous
• sinister
• bleak
• menacing
• threatening
• direful
• unfortunate
• dark
• somber
• murky
• portentous
• lonely
• inauspicious
• ill
• foreboding
• depressing
• darkening
• desolate
• minatory
• baleful
• depressive
• grey
• black
• gray
• ill-boding
• unfavorable
• doomy
• cold
• dismal
• dim
• sombre
• morbid
• gloomy
• cheerless
• dreary
• hopeless
• troubled
• unpropitious
• morose
• glum
• lugubrious
• miserable
• discouraging
• lonesome
• unpromising
• sullen
• disconsolate
• saturnine
• drear
• forlorn
• disheartening
• comfortless
• elegiac
• sepulchral
• funereal
• wretched
• cloudy
• chill
• elegiacal
• unlucky
• godforsaken
• evil
• dreich
• malignant
• plutonian
• tenebrous
• Cimmerian
• tenebrific
• malign
• sunless
• ill-fated
• ill-starred
• star-crossed

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• favorable
• promising
• bright
• benign
• hopeful
• golden
• prosperous
• encouraging
• auspicious
• unthreatening
• propitious
• heartening

2

as in terrifying

causing fear

a series of dire tremors that hinted at a huge volcanic eruption

Synonyms & Similar Words

• terrifying
• formidable
• frightening
• terrible
• horrible
• scary
• alarming
• dread
• intimidating
• fearful
• shocking
• dreadful
• horrifying
• direful
• startling
• frightful
• ghastly
• horrendous
• eerie
• troubling
• fearsome
• creepy
• gruesome
• forbidding
• redoubtable
• eery
• threatening
• disturbing
• trying
• spine-chilling
• hair-raising
• daunting
• unnerving
• discouraging
• dismaying
• disconcerting
• hideous
• disquieting
• perturbing
• distressing
• demoralizing
• weird
• nightmarish
• appalling
• awful
• horrid
• grisly
• macabre
• atrocious
• monstrous
• bone-chilling
• grewsome

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• reassuring
• comforting
• soothing
• calming
• relaxing
• consoling
• inviting
• tranquilizing
• quieting
• tranquillizing
• nonthreatening
• lulling
• pacifying
• nonintimidating

3

as in urgent

needing immediate attention

a dire need for food and medicine in the famine-stricken country

Synonyms & Similar Words

• urgent
• acute
• intense
• pressing
• compelling
• critical
• emergent
• desperate
• crying
• imperative
• serious
• exigent
• immediate
• instant
• imperious
• extreme
• importunate
• dangerous
• necessitous
• clamant
• crucial
• burning
• severe
• hazardous
• insistent
• precarious
• life-and-death
• perilous
• life-or-death
• overriding
• demanding
• vital
• grave
• unstable
• explosive

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• minor
• trivial
• negligible
• unimportant
• incidental
• noncritical
• stable
• nonurgent
• low-pressure
• safe
• nonthreatening

4

as in bleak

causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer

with stock prices steadily falling, these are dire days on the trading floor

Synonyms & Similar Words

• bleak
• depressing
• somber
• dark
• lonely
• depressive
• darkening
• desolate
• murky
• morbid
• solemn
• cold
• miserable
• lonesome
• grey
• gray
• wretched
• dismal
• gloomy
• blue
• depressed
• sombre
• black
• sad
• dreary
• cheerless
• glum
• lugubrious
• morose
• chill
• sullen
• forlorn
• disconsolate
• oppressive
• drear
• funereal
• saturnine
• comfortless
• desperate
• cloudy
• elegiac
• melancholy
• sepulchral
• tenebrous
• unhappy
• godforsaken
• elegiacal
• dreich
• grim
• hopeless
• negative
• woeful
• plutonian
• distressful
• woebegone
• tenebrific
• distressing
• Cimmerian
• dull
• dim
• discouraging
• dispiriting
• dismaying
• upsetting
• sunless
• despondent
• menacing
• mournful
• lamentable
• dejected
• pessimistic
• disheartening
• discomfiting
• mirthless
• inconsolable
• low
• melancholic
• hangdog
• droopy
• sorrowful
• down
• drab
• plaintive
• threatening
• dour
• colorless
• lowering
• louring
• loury
• lowery

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• bright
• cheerful
• friendly
• cheery
• festive
• gay
• comforting
• cordial
• joyous
• sunshiny
• joyful
• merry
• jolly
• optimistic
• buoyant
• gay
• blithe
• hopeful
• mirthful
• encouraging
• heartwarming
• cheering
• jocund
• blithesome
• lighthearted
• lightsome