The phrase "a dreadful act" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe an action that is considered extremely bad or shocking, often in a moral or ethical context.
Example: "The community was in shock after the news of a dreadful act that had taken place in their neighborhood."
Alternatives: "an atrocious deed" or "a heinous act".
So to do this is a dreadful act.
The left is able to state categorically that Tuesday's terrorism was a dreadful act, irrespective of provenance.
Now, naming an innocent party in an attempt to get yourself out of trouble is certainly a dreadful act, one for which got Knox three years in jail.
"How could any right-minded person want to put a baby or a child or anybody's health at risk by doing such a dreadful act?," Palaszczuk told reporters on Saturday.
You can admire his talent without trying to make excuses for a dreadful act of petulance.
"If they are true, this is a truly dreadful act and a truly dreadful situation," he said, according to comments carried by The Associated Press.
David Cameron, the prime minister, interrupted a tour of Afghanistan to say that this was "a truly dreadful act".
David Cameron has meanwhile criticised the News of the World - "this is a truly dreadful act", he said.
Suicide remains a tragic and dreadful act, but its prevention will be hindered, and the age-old stigma against it will remain, unless we can begin to understand that the vast majority of those who do away with themselves do not do it because of any frailty, and rarely out of impulse, but because they are in the grip of an illness that causes almost unimaginable pain.
India's investigating agency called it a "dreadful terrorist act" carried out with the intent to strike fear "in the people of India and in a foreign country". Their probe had concluded that the blasts were carried out to avenge attacks on Hindu temples.
"There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act".
