n_soh
what is diffrence between terrible, awful and dreadful? what is diffrence between terrible, awful and dreadful? what is diffrence between wonderful amazing birilliant? how can i sort this word from very bad to bad or very good to good? which one is more extreme or less extreme?
Jul 11, 2013 9:06 PM
Answers · 3
3
Terrible, awful, dreadful mean the same and they all have the same or similar level of "badness." To try to sort them from very bad to bad to less bad would be impossible (in my opinion). It is the same answer for wonderful, amazing, brilliant. (same meaning, same level) In American English, we might not say "brilliant" as much as speakers of British English, in this context.
July 11, 2013
1
There isn't a big difference between these words, but I'll try to explain them. For the bad ones: I think "terrible" and "awful" are approximately the same in strength, but "awful" sounds a little more informal. Ex: "That was a terrible movie." Ex: "That was an awful movie." (You would probably say this in a more informal setting.) "Dreadful" sounds a bit more extreme than "terrible" and "awful." It also has a more formal sound than those words. Ex: "This book is dreadful." (This sounds like something a very high-class person would say.) For the good ones: I think "wonderful" sounds more emotional than the other two words. If you describe something as "wonderful," it sounds like the thing affected you emotionally. Ex: "Isn't this a wonderful day?" (This day makes me feel very happy.) "Amazing" suggests that something amazes you. It means the thing is so good you almost can't believe it. Ex: "That magic trick was amazing!" (I can't believe he was able to do that.) "Brilliant" suggests that something is good because of someone's high intelligence or skill. Ex: "The orchestra gave a brilliant performance." (The orchestra members are very skilled, and they performed very well because of it.) I hope this helps!
July 11, 2013
Alan's answer is good. Not possible to sort these words. If you want a spectrum of words from bad to good, you need to start with others. For use of these ones, choose whether you want to say, inspires terror, ?, full of dread, full of wonder, ... :)
July 11, 2013
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