Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Fearsome |
FearsomeAdjective1. Causing fear or dread or terror; "the awful war"; "an awful risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling"; "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "fearsome" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1808. (references) |
Synonyms: FearsomeSynonyms: awful (adj), dire (adj), direful (adj), dread(a) (adj), dreaded (adj), dreadful (adj), fearful (adj), frightening (adj), horrendous (adj), horrific (adj), terrible (adj). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Fearsome |
| English words defined with "fearsome": fearsomely. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "fearsome": crawling horror. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Fearsome creature who would stay Unchanged by the light of day Remain you thus throughout the night And be thou flesh by dawn's fair light. (Gargoyles; writing credit: Heiko Schier) Which only goes to show that even the fearsome Frankenstein has a one hundred percent red-blooded American sense of humor. (Death Race 2000; writing credit: Ib Melchior; Robert Thom) In less than 6 years, his small, insignificant tribe has risen from obscurity and given its name to an all-powerful nation organized into a fearsome military machine. (Shaka Zulu; writing credit: Joshua Sinclair) Something fearsome. They fed on it, the fear. (Freaky Links; writing credit: Mark Verheiden; Juan Carlos Coto) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Fable of the Fearsome Feud Between the First Families (1916) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Fearsome" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Fearsome" is used about 252 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 252 | 18,696 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "fearsome": fearsome-looking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
fearsome foursome | 12 |
fearsome oekaki | 6 |
fearsome | 4 |
fearsome five | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "fearsome"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | i frikshëm (bloodcurdling, dreadful, eerie, eery, fearful, forbidding, formidable, frightful, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, morbid, redoubtable, redoubted, terrific, tremendous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مخيف (awful, dreadful, fearful, frightening, frightful, grisly, gruesome, horrifying, scaremonger, terrifying), جبان (apprehensive, chicken, chicken heart, chicken hearted, coward, cowardly, cur, faint, fearful, funk, funky, heartless, lily livered, pigeon-hearted, poor spirited, pusillanimous, scared, sheepish, shy, sissified, sissy, spiritless, timid, timorous, tremulous, unmanly, weak-kneed). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | страхотен (awesome, devilish, direful, formidable, frantic, frightful, furious, ghastly, great, morbid, tremendous, unearthly), страховит (awesome, creepy, macabre, scary), страшен (alarming, almighty, apocalyptic, awesome, awful, dire, dreadful, fearful, forbidding, formidable, frightful, grisly, gruesome, hair raising, horrible, redoubtable, scary, terrible, terrific, tremendous, wicked), ужасен (aghast, appalling, awful, bloodcurdling, deadly, desperate, deuced, devastating, dire, direful, dreadful, eldritch, execrable, fearful, frantic, frightful, furious, ghastly, great, grievous, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, horror-stricken, lurid, macabre, miserable, morbid, murderous, planet-stricken, planet-struck, precious, sad, septic, terrible, terrific, towering, tremendous, unholy, unmentionable, vicious, wretched). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 可怕 (Awful, Dire, Fearful, frightful, Grewsome, gruesome, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, macaber, macabre, redoubtable, scary, terrible). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | strašný (awful, chronic, dire, distressing, dreadful, fearful, formidable, frightful, ghastly, gruesome, hairy, hellish, hideous, hopeless, horrible, horrific, terrible, tremendous), hrozný (abysmal, appalling, atrocious, awful, damnable, dire, dreadful, excruciating, fearful, formidable, frightful, ghastly, grim, hateful, hellish, horrible, mortal, terrible, terrific, tremendous), dìsný (awful, dreadful, great, grim, grisly, gruesome, hair-rising, hairy, horrid, lurid, macabre, unearthly, unholy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | lâche. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | fürchterlich (awful, dreadful, excruciating, horrible, horribly, horrid, horridly, horrifying, indescribable, miserable, miserably, monstrously, outrageously, racking, redoubtable, redoubtably, terrible, terribly, terrifying, tremendous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | φοβερός (abysmal, chilling, frightful, terrible), τρομακτικός (appalling, scary, terrifying). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | rémséges. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | menjerikan. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | terribile (abysmal, appaling, appalling, awful, dire, direful, dreadful, fearful, gruesome, horrible, splitting, terrible, terrific, tremendous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 鬼面伝心 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | きめ"で"し". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | earsomefay frisa (frieze), terrível (abysmal, awesome, awful, deadly, desperate, dire, direful, dread, dreadful, elect, fearful, fell, frightful, grisly, gruesome, hideout, horrible, horrid, lurid, parlous, redoubtable, redoubted, terrible, terrific, tragic, tremendous, ungodly), tímido (afraid, apprehensive, backward, bashful, blushing, diffident, efface, faint-hearted, fearful, gawk, mousey, mousy, pop, pusillanimous, rabbity, shamefaced, sheep-faced, sheepish, shy, timid, timorous, tremulant, tremulous, unassertive), espantoso (appaling, appalling, astonishing, astounding, colossal, dreadful, frightful, phenomenal, surprising, terrible, terrific, unbelievable, wonderful, wondrous), assustador (astounding, fearful, frightful, scary, startling). (various references) teribil (awful, awfully, damnably, direful, dreadful, exceedingly, excruciating, extraordinary, formidable, frightful, ghastly, like old boot, terrible, terribly, terrific, tremendous), înfricoşãtor (awful, dire, dreadful, frightening, horrent, horrible, horrifying, terrifying). (various references) грозный (awesome, bodeful, formidable, rampant, redoubtable, redoubted). (various references) strahovit (dreadful, frightful, horrible, scary, terrible, terrific), strašan (almighty, awful, dire, direful, dreadful, formidable, frightful, horrible, horrid, howling, redoubtable, redoubted, terrible, terrific), plašljiv (afraid, craven, fearful, henhearted, hen-hearted, lily livered, mousey, mousy, scary, shy, timid, tremulous). (various references) temoso (gingerly), temible (formidable, redoubtable, redoubted). (various references) förskräcklig (abysmal, apalling, appalling, desperate, dire, dreadful, fearful, frightful, gruesome, horrendous, horrible, shocking, terrible, tremendous, unholy). (various references) น่ากลัว (awful, eerie, gruesome, hideous, horrendous, horrid, horrific). (various references) korkunç (appalling, awesome, awful, cruel, desperate, dire, direful, disastrous, disgusting, dreadfull, eldritch, fearful, formidable, frightening, frightful, ghastly, ghoulish, gory, grim, grisly, gruesome, haircurling, hair-raiser, hellish, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, lurid, monstrous, redoubtable, scary, shocking, sickening, terrible, terrific, terrifying), dehşetli (dire, direful, fearful, frightful, horrendous, terrifying). (various references) грізний (bodeful, formidable, frowning, redoubtable, redoubted, thundering, thunderous), жахливий (abominable, abysmal, almighty, appalling, atrocious, awesome, awful, blinking, blood-curdling, blue, chronic, damnable, damned, deadly, desperate, deuced, devilish, dire, direful, dreadful, eerie, eery, eldritch, enormous, fearful, ferocious, flagrant, frightening, frightful, grievous, gruesome, horrible, horrific, iniquitous, macabre, monstrous, plaguy, scarey, scary, towering, tragic, tremendous, ungodly, wretched). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "fearsome": fearsomely, fearsomeness, fearsomenesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Fearsome" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: fearesome, Fearson. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "fearsome" (pronounced fi"rsum) |
| 4 | -r s u m | foursome. |
| 3 | -s u m | adventuresome, awesome, Balsam, blossom, bothersome, burdensome, buxom, cataclysm, cumbersome, flotsam, fulsome, gruesome, gypsum, handsome, hansom, irksome, loathsome, lonesome, Maxim, meddlesome, nettlesome, opossum, possum, quarrelsome, ransom, threesome, tiresome, transom, troublesome, twosome, venturesome, wearisome, wholesome, winsome, worrisome. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-e-f-m-o-r-s" | |
-1 letter: foamers. | |
-2 letters: ameers, femora, foamer, forams, formee, formes, frames, ramees, ramose, seamer. | |
-3 letters: afore, ameer, arose, erase, erose, fames, fares, farms, faros, fears, fease, femes, feres, foams, foram, fores, forme, forms, frame, frees, froes, mares, marse, maser, meres, morae, moras, mores, morse, omers, ramee, reams, reefs, roams, safer, saree, smear, sofar. | |
-4 letters: aero, ares. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-e-f-m-o-r-s" | |
+1 letter: defoamers, forenames. | |
+2 letters: fearsomely, forcemeats, reformates. | |
+3 letters: freemasonry. | |
+4 letters: amentiferous, coffeemakers, deformalizes, fearsomeness, ferromagnets, formalnesses, headforemost, performances, reformulates. | |
+5 letters: fermentations, flameproofers, flamethrowers, forestallment, formaldehydes, freemasonries, metalliferous, olfactometers, performatives, preformulates, reformatories, retransformed, wafflestomper. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)46 65 61 72 73 6F 6D 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)..-. . .- .-. ... --- -- . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000110 01100101 01100001 01110010 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)F e a r s o m e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0046 0065 0061 0072 0073 006F 006D 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4071678485817971 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Speeches 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Orthography 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
