nightmare
Plural: nightmares
Noun
- a situation resembling a terrifying dream
- a terrifying or deeply upsetting dream
- A very unpleasant or frightening dream.
- Any bad, miserable, difficult or terrifying situation or experience that arouses anxiety, terror, agony or great displeasure.
- A demon or monster, thought to plague people while they slept and cause a feeling of suffocation and terror during sleep.
- A feeling of extreme anxiety or suffocation experienced during sleep; Sleep paralysis.
Verb
- To experience a nightmare.
- To imagine (someone or something) as in a nightmare.
- To trouble (someone or something), as by a nightmare.
Examples
- Cleaning up after identity theft can be a nightmare of phone calls and letters.
- I had a nightmare that I tried to run but could neither move nor breathe.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English night-mare, 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.
Scrabble Score: 15
nightmare: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordnightmare: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
nightmare: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 17
nightmare: valid Words With Friends Word