dire vs miserable

dire

adj
  • Bad in quality, awful, terrible. 

  • Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous. 

  • Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal. 

  • Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing. 

miserable

adj
  • Very bad (at something); unskilled, incompetent; hopeless. 

  • In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor. 

  • Wretched; worthless; mean; contemptible. 

  • Of the weather, extremely unpleasant due to being cold, wet, overcast, etc. 

noun
  • A miserable person; a wretch. 

  • A state of misery or melancholy. 

How often have the words dire and miserable occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )