# nightmare

Pronunciation: say "NYT-mair" US /ˈnaɪt.mɛɚ/, UK /ˈnaɪt.mɛə/

## Noun

1. A frightening or very unpleasant dream that occurs during sleep.
   - Simple: A scary dream that can wake you up feeling afraid or upset.
   - _He still remembers a vivid nightmare he had as a teenager._
   - _After the accident she suffered recurring nightmares for months._
2. Any situation or experience so unpleasant, difficult, or frightening that it causes deep anxiety, terror, anguish, or displeasure.
   - Simple: A very bad or scary situation that makes you feel upset or afraid.
   - _The morning commute turned into a nightmare after three trains were canceled._
   - _Coordinating the schedules of forty volunteers became a logistical nightmare._

## Noun

3. A demon or monster believed to plague people during sleep, causing a sensation of suffocation and terror. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An evil spirit that people once believed sat on sleepers and made them feel unable to breathe.
4. An episode during sleep of intense dread or a sense of suffocation, the experience now called sleep paralysis. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A scary feeling of not being able to move or breathe while falling asleep or waking up.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To experience a frightening dream during sleep.
- (verb) To trouble or torment someone, as a frightening dream might.
- (verb) To imagine someone or something in the manner of a frightening dream.

## Origin

From Middle English night-mare, from Old English *nihtmare, made up of night plus mare, an evil spirit believed to afflict a sleeping person. It is related to Dutch nachtmerrie and German Nachtmahr.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/nightmare (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).