English Explanatory Dictionary

nightmare

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A very unpleasant or frightening dream.
  2. Any bad, miserable, difficult or terrifying situation or experience that arouses anxiety, terror, agony or great displeasure.
  3. A demon or monster, thought to plague people while they slept and cause a feeling of suffocation and terror during sleep.
  4. A feeling of extreme anxiety or suffocation experienced during sleep; sleep paralysis.
verb
  1. To experience a nightmare.
  2. To imagine (someone or something) as in a nightmare.
  3. To trouble (someone or something), as by a nightmare.

Pronunciation

/ˈnaɪt.mɛə/ /ˈnaɪt.mɛɚ/ [nʌɪʔ.mɛəɹ] en-us-nightmare.ogg

Word forms

nightmare nightmares night-mare nightmaring nightmared

Etymology

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.

Synonyms

incubus succubus night hag

Related words

night terror sleep paralysis

Derived words

daymare flightmare frightmare knightmare logistical nightmare mid-nightmare midnightmare morningmare nightmare disorder nightmare fuel nightmareless nightmarelike nightmarious nightmarish nightmary out of a nightmare
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