The quality or condition of being dread; the state of inspiring or feeling fear or apprehension.
From dread (noun/verb) + -ness (abstract noun suffix). Directly builds an abstract noun from the root word dread.
English speakers have multiple overlapping words for dread's qualities—dreadness, dreadfulness, and fearfulness all exist, but standardization favored 'dreadfulness,' making 'dreadness' now sound archaic even though it follows the simplest formation rules.
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