"direr" in the adjective sense

1. desperate, dire

fraught with extreme danger nearly hopeless

"a desperate illness"

"on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel"- G.C.Marshall

"a dire emergency"

2. awful, dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terrible

causing fear or dread or terror

"the awful war"

"an awful risk"

"dire news"

"a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"

"the dread presence of the headmaster"

"polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"

"a dreadful storm"

"a fearful howling"

"horrendous explosions shook the city"

"a terrible curse"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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