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Synonyms for nightmare

Grammar : Noun
Spell : nahyt-mair
Phonetic Transcription : ˈnaɪtˌmɛər

Top 10 synonyms for nightmare
Other synonyms for the word nightmare

Définition of nightmare

Origin :
  • late 13c., "an evil female spirit afflicting sleepers with a feeling of suffocation," compounded from night + mare (3) "goblin that causes nightmares, incubus." Meaning shifted mid-16c. from the incubus to the suffocating sensation it causes. Sense of "any bad dream" first recorded 1829; that of "very distressing experience" is from 1831. Cognate with Middle Dutch nachtmare, German Nachtmahr.
  • noun bad dream or experience
Example sentences :
  • The dread of French domination seems to have haunted him like a nightmare.
  • Extract from : « Biographical Sketches » by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • The dread of poverty is a nightmare; it wears one's life threadbare.
  • Extract from : « Thoroughbreds » by W. A. Fraser
  • What was it—madness, a nightmare, or a trap into which he had been decoyed with fiendish artfulness?
  • Extract from : « The Secret Agent » by Joseph Conrad
  • For there is nothing so delightful as a nightmare—when you know it is a nightmare.
  • Extract from : « Alarms and Discursions » by G. K. Chesterton
  • So a nightmare of thought teemed through his brain as he rode.
  • Extract from : « The Law-Breakers » by Ridgwell Cullum
  • Their animation was almost like the animation of a nightmare.
  • Extract from : « A Spirit in Prison » by Robert Hichens
  • A dream had succeeded the nightmare, a fairy tale of a dream.
  • Extract from : « The Innocent Adventuress » by Mary Hastings Bradley
  • The insurgents seemed to have vanished in the darkness like a nightmare.
  • Extract from : « The Fortune of the Rougons » by Emile Zola
  • Was the hateful thing, the dreaded thing, merely a nightmare after all?
  • Extract from : « Fruitfulness » by Emile Zola
  • She only thought of Laurent when awakened with a start by nightmare.
  • Extract from : « Therese Raquin » by Emile Zola

Antonyms for nightmare

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019