The phrase "a dreadful term" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when expressing a negative opinion about a specific word or phrase that you find unpleasant or inappropriate.
Example: "In my opinion, 'failure' is a dreadful term that carries too much stigma and negativity."
Alternatives: "an awful term" or "a terrible term".
To borrow a dreadful term from management speak, we thought "outside the box" and it was this bold approach to litigation that made such a result possible.
In the mornings, Robert Cooper Ashby would be awakened by his "body slave" (a dreadful term to add to the long lexicon of slavery), who would bathe, dry and dress his master and fix his hair.
He said: "There's a dreadful term - ambulance chasers.
One virtue of the 1960s: the dreadful term "staycation" was a good four decades from being coined.
Hard to get 'assists' (dreadful term) if no one is putting the ball in the net, I would suggest.
These habitats also support - via that dreadful term "ecosystem services" - the one species that has the power, means and comprehension to decide their fate.
"The child was doing splendidly until they visited Hartford, but ever since then, no matter how hard they try, they simply cannot dissuade him from using that dreadful term 'O.K.'" View Article By Miranda Carter By Jia Tolentino By Emily Nussbaum By George Packer.
He said Australia faced a "dreadful" long-term budget situation which would only be solved when groups such as unions and business acted in the national interest.
USAA Aggressive Growth, a controversial small-company vehicle, has a dreadful long-term record.
On the other hand, Snowden made Americans look at something from which we had learned to look away -- internal government procedures to which we feel immune, until those procedures are spelled out in stark and dreadful terms, and we don't like what we see.
DOUBTS have persisted about Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, who reversed a humiliatingly dreadful first term in office in 2006-07 with a stunning return to power in 2012 a comeback often credited to the backing of abler and tougher political allies together with an unusual run of good luck.
