nightmare

CEFRB2

/ˈnaɪt.mɛə/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A frightening dream.

  2. 02

    noun

    A very unpleasant or frightening experience.

Examples

  • I feel as if I've woken up from a nightmare.

  • Cleaning up after identity theft can be a nightmare of phone calls and letters.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
3

Also pronounced

  • [nʌɪʔ.mɛəɹ]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A demon or monster, thought to plague people while they slept and cause a feeling of suffocation and terror during sleep.

  2. Any bad, miserable, difficult or terrifying situation or experience that arouses anxiety, terror, agony or great displeasure.

  3. A very unpleasant or frightening dream.

More examples

In context

  • I had a nightmare that I tried to run but could neither move nor breathe.

  • I had a nightmare.

  • Had been afflicted in the night with that strange complaint called the nightmare.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After eating spoiled food, he had a terrible blank about being chased by monsters.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English nyghtmare, from Old English *nihtmare, equivalent to night + mare (“evil spirit believed to afflict a sleeping person”). Cognate with Scots nichtmare and nichtmeer, Dutch nachtmerrie, Middle Low German nachtmār, German Nachtmahr.