frightful
7
4.2
- adjective
- /ˈfraɪtfəl/
:
terrible
- She had a frightful experience during the storm, as the winds howled and the rain poured in torrents.
Oh, the last guy in charge was frightful, but the new one seems delightful.
- Oh, the last guy in charge was frightful, but the new one seems delightful.
Examples
-
You make it sound like a frightful duty.
-
What is that perfectly frightful stench?
-
Seems like a frightful waste of energy.
-
The life that the private soldier led was a frightful one.
-
I hear you've been having the most frightful week.
-
We were just saying what a frightful thing cholera is.
-
There's been a frightful mistake.
-
The wheels made a frightful racket, and the motion was jarring.
Fiction book (1997) -
The conditions in the hospital were frightful, making it difficult for the patients to recover.
-
After a frightful performance, the audience remained silent instead of applauding.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Very bad or unpleasant and often serious
∞
1.5
Very bad or frightening in a way that makes you feel upset
763
1.0
Causing fear or making you feel afraid
209
5.3
Making people feel very afraid
179
5.5
Causing great fear or shock
136
3.7
Very bad and unpleasant, often causing fear or shock
95
4.5
Makes people feel very afraid and shocked
87
5.6
Causing shock and strong disgust because it is very bad
82
7.0
Very shocking and scary, causing fear or disgust
65
1.1
Very frightening and causing fear or dread
57
4.5
Very bad and shocking, causing people to feel fear or sadness
52
4.1
A very unpleasant thing that shocks or disgusts you
49
6.8
Causing great fear and shock, often like death or ghosts
37
4.8
Very frightening and likely to make people afraid
19
2.9
Causing strong fear and worry
17
7.0
Very frightening and unpleasant, like a bad dream
12
7.6
Very cruel and shocking, causing great pain and fear
Making someone feel very afraid
Antonyms
How Unpleasant
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Frightful is made of fright ('fear') and -ful ('full of'), a simple picture of being 'full of fear'. A helpful way to remember the second meaning is that something that causes fear can also feel very bad or extreme, so frightful is used to mean 'very unpleasant' or 'terrible'.