nightmarish
Like a bad dream
Nightmarish describes something resembling or evoking a nightmare—disturbing, terrifying, or surreally unpleasant.
A nightmarish experience feels like being trapped in a bad dream.
The word often describes situations that combine horror with helplessness or absurdity: The bureaucratic process was nightmarish, nightmarish working conditions.
It can intensify to suggest genuine trauma or soften to hyperbolic complaint.
Frighteningly huge or wicked
- ghoulishFascinated by death grotesquely
- macabreDisturbing, death-obsessed
- gruesomeCausing horror and disgust
- hideousExtremely unpleasant to see
horrific · abominable · repulsive · revolting · loathsome · grim · morbid · twisted
Evoking extreme fear
- horrifyingCausing extreme fear
- scaryCausing fright
- chillingCausing fear or cold
- spine-chillingIntensely frightening or eerie
bloodcurdling · hair-raising · petrifying · bone-chilling · alarming · daunting · menacing · threatening
Hazy and fantastical
- phantasmagoricBizarrely dreamlike and shifting
- kafkaesqueNightmarishly illogical and bureaucratic
- hallucinatorySeeming falsely perceived
- bizarreStrikingly unconventional
uncanny · otherworldly · disorienting · distorted · warped · illogical · absurd · fevered
Extremely distressing or disturbing
- devastatingCausing severe damage
- scarringPermanent mark formation
- tormentingCausing severe distress
- anguishingCausing severe mental distress
distressing · overwhelming · paralyzing · haunting · unforgettable · searing · wrenching · gut-wrenching
monstrous
Frighteningly huge or wicked
- ghoulishFascinated by death grotesquely
- macabreDisturbing, death-obsessed
- gruesomeCausing horror and disgust
hideous · horrific · abominable · repulsive · revolting · loathsome · grim · morbid · twisted · deformed
terrifying
Evoking extreme fear
- horrifyingCausing extreme fear
- scaryCausing fright
- chillingCausing fear or cold
spine-chilling · bloodcurdling · hair-raising · petrifying · bone-chilling · alarming · daunting · menacing · threatening · ominous
dreamlike
Hazy and fantastical
- phantasmagoricBizarrely dreamlike and shifting
- kafkaesqueNightmarishly illogical and bureaucratic
- hallucinatorySeeming falsely perceived
bizarre · uncanny · otherworldly · disorienting · distorted · warped · illogical · absurd · fevered · delirious
harrowing
Extremely distressing or disturbing
- devastatingCausing severe damage
- scarringPermanent mark formation
- tormentingCausing severe distress
anguishing · distressing · overwhelming · paralyzing · haunting · unforgettable · searing · wrenching · gut-wrenching · soul-crushing
infernal
Of the underworld
- demonicOf or like devils
- diabolicalExtremely wicked or cruel
- fiendishExtremely cruel or wicked
satanic · malevolent · evil · wicked · sinister · dark · accursed · damned · cursed · torturous
torment
Severe prolonged suffering
- sufferingSustained experience of distress
- agonyExtreme physical or emotional pain
- miseryIntense prolonged distress
horror · trial · tribulation · hell · purgatory · struggle · hardship · adversity · crisis · catastrophe
- horrorhorror, terror, fear, dread, haunted
- Gothic horrorghost story, haunted houses, Dracula, vampires, Frankenstein
- mysteriousmysterious, cryptic, enigmatic, arcane, obscure
- scary feelingsterrified, frightening, dreadful, creepiness, goosebumps
- exhaustingdraining, taxing, tiring, exhausting, fatiguing
- strangenessodd, weird, strange, bizarre, peculiar