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# dreadfully

«dreadfully» in Mova's school dictionary: **Very; extremely: «I'm dreadfully sorry.»** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adverb (dreadfully)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Very; extremely: «I'm dreadfully sorry.» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/#m1)

2) Very badly: «The team played dreadfully.» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In old British books such as Alice in Wonderland, «dreadfully» is often used for «very»: Alice was «dreadfully puzzled» and «dreadfully frightened». It sounds polite and a little old-fashioned. In everyday talk «dreadfully» can also mean in a very bad way.

### examples

- I'm dreadfully sorry about the window. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/#x1)
- Alice was dreadfully puzzled by the Hatter's remark. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/#x2)
- The play went dreadfully — everyone forgot their lines. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/#x3)
- It was dreadfully cold in the castle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/#x4)
- She missed her family dreadfully. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/#x5)
- Mole was dreadfully frightened in the Wild Wood. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/#x6)
- It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/#x7)

### note

Adverb of dreadful (very bad; terrible). Spelling: dreadful + ly — two l's. Similar: awfully, terribly, very.

### In the corpora

- [«There was a great deal more of the same sort, but too dreadfully conceited to be written down.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/63-willows-ch10-part3-the-conceited-song/18/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «dreadfully» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadfully/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.