What's the difference between awful and dreadful?

Awful


Definition:

  • (a.) Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling; terrible; as, an awful scene.
  • (a.) Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence, or with fear and admiration; fitted to inspire reverential fear; profoundly impressive.
  • (a.) Struck or filled with awe; terror-stricken.
  • (a.) Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding.
  • (a.) Frightful; exceedingly bad; great; -- applied intensively; as, an awful bonnet; an awful boaster.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But at the same time I didn't feel like, 'Aw, I'm home!'
  • (2) It seems like an awfully long way from the ground.” He added: “When I was younger, I dreamed of being an astronaut, but I also wanted to be a policeman or a firebreather.
  • (3) EEG waves were similar during Aw and Qw but they diminished in amplitude and frequency when passing from these states to Qs, and both parameters increased during As.
  • (4) In vitro blastogenic responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMN) to heterogeneous schistosome-derived antigens (eggs, SEA; adult worms, AW; and cercariae, CERC) were evaluated.
  • (5) Asked whether the loss of control of the streets was embarrassing, Sir Paul replied: "Well the one thing I would say is that it must have been an awful time for the people trying to go about their daily business in those buildings.
  • (6) By contrast, storage fungi, especially Aspergillus spp., are able to grow at low water activities (aw, 0.70-0.75) enabling them to initiate grain spoilage.
  • (7) It was a bit of a nightmare … there wasn't an awful lot I could do."
  • (8) It’s very, very difficult to feel any optimism about this summit or what it will do for people looking for a safe place for them and their families right at this moment, nor tackle the awful actions of countries who are now thinking, ‘If other countries won’t help take responsibility, then why should we?’ and are now driving back desperate people.
  • (9) It has been awfully hard-won, carved slowly out of a big block of human agony.
  • (10) AW: Well, I think a rather terrific movie, actually.
  • (11) For the AW group the occurrence rate becomes 0.00043 per chromosome per generation for all aberrations and 0.00041 for inversions.
  • (12) Third, we must do more to strengthen the old principle of contribution: there are lots of people right now who feel they pay an awful lot more in than they ever get back.
  • (13) "We welcome a consultation, but default filters are awful," said ORG executive director Jim Killock.
  • (14) All samples are well detected by anti-B from AW, Aend, Ax, Am but none is detected by anti-B from ABx, Cis AB, or by an auto-anti-B.
  • (15) I even suspect that if Charlotte had truly known what marriage to a man so teeth-gnashingly awful really meant – in a way that no woman without the experience of going out with, let alone sleeping with, someone inappropriate can – she would have made a different choice.
  • (16) To determine whether the presence of small-intestinal malabsorption is associated with the development of AWS in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with chronic diarrhea, we retrospectively reviewed the results of D-xylose testing performed in the clinical evaluation of 21 consecutive HIV-infected patients with chronic diarrhea.
  • (17) The atmospherics between the Athens government and its antagonists, which is now just about every player of importance in the rest of Europe, have been awful for weeks and have got more poisonous as they have neared the crunch.
  • (18) Cell lines AW 13516 and AW 8507 were derived from poorly differentiated SCC and epidermoid carcinoma of the tongue respectively.
  • (19) We worked awfully hard for this Premier League status and we don’t want to give it up.” Gylfi Sigurdsson’s 61st-minute strike – his sixth goal in 10 games – settled a scrappy Liberty Stadium contest that failed to spark into life until the Iceland international finished from substitute Leroy Fer’s pass.
  • (20) 9.27pm BST 67 min: The Argentinian fans are making an awful lot of noise here.

Dreadful


Definition:

  • (a.) Full of dread or terror; fearful.
  • (a.) Inspiring dread; impressing great fear; fearful; terrible; as, a dreadful storm.
  • (a.) Inspiring awe or reverence; awful.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Thinking I had the dreaded Norovirus, I rushed home.
  • (2) We should be grateful the School Food Trust has established this now, before we end up falling down a slippery slope back towards the dreaded Turkey Twizzler that Jamie Oliver campaigned to banish," he added.
  • (3) So what should those who have long dreaded this moment do now?
  • (4) Dr Bhambra sustained the most dreadful life-changing injuries during a sustained racist attack on an innocent man, a member of a caring profession.” There was applause from the public gallery as the verdict was returned.
  • (5) Despite a dreadful end to last season, culminating in a 6-1 defeat at Stoke City, FSG are pressing ahead with transfer plans agreed with Rodgers, indicating the manager’s position is safe at the moment.
  • (6) The image of older people, epitomised in the dreadful road sign, is about health and disability, but poverty is an equally defining feature, so we could talk about older people dependent on social security and those who have other sources of income.
  • (7) Panic attacks would overwhelm her periodically and she experienced regular “ scanxiety ” – the feelings of dread that grip patients before new tests.
  • (8) If you are a London commuter dreading tube strike chaos this evening and tomorrow there is an alternative to fighting your way on to overcrowded buses or a long walk.
  • (9) Many clinicians have realised that AIDS is only the most dreadful aspect of HIV infection.
  • (10) I have to say I think Iran are the poorest team I've seen so far – Nigeria were dreadful in that game but you got the sense that at leas they were a half-decent team playing badly.
  • (11) After expressing frustration with Stoke City's style of play, the dreadful standard of the game and the lack of width available on a pitch narrowed to exploit Rory Delap's throw-ins, Tony Mowbray finally realised that a sixth defeat in seven matches might also owe something to West Bromwich Albion's shortcomings.
  • (12) Thus China replaced a state bureaucracy with a similar state bureaucracy under a different name, the USSR replaced the dreaded imperial secret police with an even more dreaded secret police, and so forth.
  • (13) It's unfair to single him out on the basis of a performance in which almost all of his team-mates have been dreadful, but he's been consistently awful throughout this tournament and keeps getting picked.
  • (14) They'll dread the same thing happening again, possibly during an election campaign.
  • (15) Despite his humorous dismissal of the danger, those close to him dreaded the trips, with the archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, admitting: "My heart is in my mouth every time he goes to Nigeria."
  • (16) So Richard arose as himself again, a dreadful apparition cavorting.
  • (17) Try Penny Dreadful Read more Conleth Hill, who plays Machiavellian royal fixer Varys, kept the crowd in stitches.
  • (18) Even after yesterday's dreadful GDP figures , a year on from the financial firestorm, it has become apparent that we are not about to suffer a full rerun of America's Great Depression.
  • (19) CSKA Moscow survive PSV Eindhoven fightback after Seydou Doumbia double Read more Van Gaal, clearly unenthused by the team’s display, cannot have missed another limited performance from Wayne Rooney, most notable for a fairly dreadful shot when Anthony Martial’s quick feet and directness gave him a chance after 20 minutes.
  • (20) Soubry compared nicotine to heroin as she spoke of how she found it difficult to give up smoking because nicotine is a "dreadful substance" that creates a "perverse psychology of smoking".