dire vs ruinous

dire

adj
  • Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal. 

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

  • Bad in quality, awful, terrible. 

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

ruinous

adj
  • Causing ruin; destructive, calamitous 

  • Characterized by ruin; ruined; dilapidated; as, an edifice, bridge, or wall in a ruinous state. 

  • Extremely costly; so expensive as to cause financial ruin. 

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