The phrase "a dire possibility" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing a situation that has serious or severe implications or consequences.
Example: "The scientists warned that a dire possibility loomed if climate change continued unchecked, leading to catastrophic events."
Alternatives: "a grave possibility" or "a serious threat".
But there's a certain type of dire possibility that the Fed doesn't seem to want to contemplate: the sort of economic turbulence that affected the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.
Survey respondents indicated another dire possibility, a sudden dumping into the market of non-primary homes that they no longer could afford to own.
TERRORISM-WAR: Another more dire possibility is a terrorist act or even a military invasion by an aggressor country.
At a conference in New York in 1967, Dr. Wheeler, seizing on a suggestion shouted from the audience, hit on the name "black hole" to dramatize this dire possibility for a star and for physics.
One dire possibility is an earthquake or tsunami striking the greater metropolitan area of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, where about twenty-eight million people strain an already overburdened infrastructure.
For now, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England prefer not to contemplate this dire possibility.
For the government, the sanctions raised the dire possibility of further defaults.
The heroes and heroines of this sort of film do battle against traditional horror-movie threats -- mutants, lethal viruses, vampires, homicidal computers and the like -- but in a proactive, can-do sort of way that seems to negate the true power of the genre: the dire possibility that the malignant, irrational forces we struggle against may finally be stronger than we are.
One dire possibility is that the spacecraft is tumbling, which would cause the batteries to discharge since the solar panels no longer point toward the sun.
Late last month, as a voter-registration drive by supporters of Senator Barack Obama was signing up thousands of students at Virginia Tech, the local registrar of elections issued two releases incorrectly suggesting a range of dire possibilities for students who registered to vote at their college.
