dire
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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That, my friends, is what Social Security was designed to address: protecting people from the dire consequences of economic disaster.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2026
The city has been labelled "effectively bankrupt" due to the dire state of its finances.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
The abject poverty in a rural colonia could be something out of the most dire hollow in Appalachia.
From Slate ● Nov. 2, 2026
Arriving in Ukraine on Saturday by bus, residents whom AFP interviewed painted a dire picture of life in the city.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
Clearly, you’ve convinced her that the situation is dire.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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Rademacher said the showers will continue into at least Monday, with the midweek looking a bit direr.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2024
The fallout from that could be direr than you anticipate.
From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2022
The pandemic pushed the world’s poor into direr straits, but for some young people it launched careers and improved chances for wealth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2021
With Christmas now just months away, supermarkets are warning that the situation could become direr.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 1, 2021
Have ye forgot What deed I did among you, and what new And direr deed I fled from you to do?
From Oedipus King of Thebes Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes by Gilbert Murray
Rakhine has suffered some of the direst conditions in the war, largely cut off from the rest of Myanmar.
From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026
Chris Young grew up in Clarksville, Tenn., in the direst imaginable circumstances — unimaginable, in fact, to many of us.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
A recent drought saw the three direst years on record, which dropped reservoirs around the state to dangerously low levels and prompted mandatory rationing and even caused some hydroelectric power plants to shut down.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024
Unison's head of local government Mike Short said town halls were in the "direst of states".
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2023
After rain, or when snowfalls thaw, the streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust into the direst mud.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
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Vocabulary lists containing dire
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 2
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act I
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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