Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Frightening |
FrighteningAdjective1. 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". Noun1. To inspire with fear. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "frightening" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Nuclear Energy & Physics | MSK seismic intensity scale VI. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: FrighteningSynonyms: awful (adj), dire (adj), direful (adj), dread(a) (adj), dreaded (adj), dreadful (adj), fearful (adj), fearsome (adj), horrendous (adj), horrific (adj), terrible (adj), terrorisation (n), terrorization (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Frightening |
| English words defined with "frightening": apparition ♦ freaky, frighten ♦ hairy ♦ scaremonger, stirrer ♦ To scare away. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "frightening": encircling gill net. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "frightening": bo ♦ frighten. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | That's frightening. (Clerks.; writing credit: Kevin Smith) What a frightening (Rashmon; writing credit: Ryunosuke Akutagawa; Akira Kurosawa) It's really quite frightening. (This Is Spinal Tap; writing credit: Christopher Guest; Michael McKean) Maybe what he saw in Hershell's eyes was too frightening and too familiar. ('Round Midnight; writing credit: David Rayfiel; Bertrand Tavernier) In any other room, a frightening declaration, here a welcome distraction. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) | |
Lyrics | But some are altogether mighty frightening (Don't Speak; performing artist: No Doubt) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Most Frightening Samurai for the First Shogun Ieyasu Yukimura Sanada (1998) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
High Tech |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Scream; terror; fright; yell; frightened; frighten; scare; scary; frightening; fear; alarm; spook; terrorize. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
M.C. Escher | I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough. |
May Sarton | We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be. |
Ronald Reagan | Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He took good care not to speak to Cosette of the line written on the wall, for fear of frightening her. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Their size and motion may be frightening at first. (references) | |
These changes can be frightening and can cause panic. (references) | ||
Younger children may find it frightening to be left alone in the room during radiation therapy. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Matthew Perry | Well, not really, or at least not yet. So far we've just worked with kind of a little mechanical baby that moves in a very strange, frightening way. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Frightening" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 81.83% of the time. "Frightening" is used about 610 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) | 81.83% | 499 | 12,058 |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 18.17% | 111 | 30,796 |
| Total | 100.00% | 610 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "frightening": non-frightening. | |
| 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 |
batman frightening | 18 |
frightening | 12 |
frightening picture | 6 |
frightening image | 2 |
frightening site web | 2 |
frightening photo | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "frightening"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | frikësues (agonistic, fearful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مفزع (appallingly, awful, dread, dreadful, frightful, horrible, sanctuary, startling, terrible), مخيف (awful, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightful, grisly, gruesome, horrifying, scaremonger, terrifying), مروع (alarmed, appalling, awful, dreadful, frightened, frightful, ghastly, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrific, horrified, horrifying, macabre, panic stricken, scared, shocked, shocking, startled, startling, terrified, terrifying, terror stricken, terrorized), مرعب (alarming, appalling, awesome, dreadful, frightful, hair raising, horrible, horrific, horrifying, terrible, terrific, terrifying). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | стреснат (frightened, taken aback), изплашен (afraid, all shook-up, chicken, frightened, jittery, panicky, planet-stricken, planet-struck, shook-up, streaky, timorous, windy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 惊恐 (Appalled, scare, trepidation). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | strašidelný (creepy, ghostly, haunted, haunting, macabre, scary, spectral, spooky, unearthly), hrozivý (formidable, grisly, menacing, minacious, minatory, portentous, threatening), dìsivý (appalling, awesome, bloodcurdling, eerie, eery, horrifying, nightmarish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | forfaerdende. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | sterk (acute, concentrated, firm, intense, intensive, robust, strong, strongly, sturdy, vigorous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | pelottava (terrifying). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | effrayant. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | schreckerregend, einjagend. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | προκαλών φόβο, τρομαχτικόσ (hair raising, scary, tremendous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מפחי" (forbidding, frightful, scary, spooky), "מום (bewildering, confounding, shocked, slaphappy, stunned, stunning, thunderstruck), "פח"" (intimidation), """מ", "בעת" (intimidation), "טלת אימ" (intimidating, terrorization). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | rémítõ (frightful, gruesome, terrific), ijesztõ (appaling, appalling, creepy, forbidding, frightful, horrific, startling). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | spaventoso (appaling, appalling, awesome, awful, dire, direful, dismal, dreadful, dreary, fearful, ghastly, grim, grisly, horrible, nasty, terrific), pauroso (afraid, chicken hearted, eerie, fearful, nervous, scary, timid, timorous), panico (funk, panic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 怖い (dreadful, eerie, scary). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | おっかない (huge), "わい (dreadful, eerie, scary). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 무서운 (Dire, Fearful, frightful, horrible, scary). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | scoaghagh, owanagh (fearful, frightful), bugganeagh (dreary, fearful looking, frightful, puckish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ighteningfray sismo alarmante. (various references) înfricoşãtor (awful, dire, dreadful, fearsome, horrent, horrible, horrifying, terrifying). (various references) страшный (blood-curding, dire, direful, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightful, ghastly, grisly, hair raising, hair-raising, hairy, hideous, horrible, parlous, spooky, terrible, tremendous), пугающий. (various references) zastrašujući (deterrent, hair raising, intimidating, terrifying). (various references) sacudida atemorizadora, pavoroso (creepy, dread, dreadful, fearful, lurid, terrifying), espantoso (amazing, appaling, appalling, dread, dreadful, frightful, gruesome, hideous, nerve racking, scarey, scary, shocking, stark, terrifying), aterrador (appaling, appalling, deterring, shocking), amedrentador (scaring). (various references) korkutucu (alarming, forbidding, horror, lurid, minacious, minatory, scary, spine-chilling, startling), korkutma (intimidation, terrorization, threat, turn), korkunç (appalling, awesome, awful, cruel, desperate, dire, direful, disastrous, disgusting, dreadfull, eldritch, fearful, fearsome, formidable, 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), dehşet verici (appalling, awesome, grisly, gruesome, horror), ürkütücü (basilisk, crawly, eerie, eery, gruesome, macabre, parlous, scary, spine-chilling, startling). (various references) gorkunз (dangerous, monster), gorkuly (dangerous, frightened). (various references) 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, fearsome, ferocious, flagrant, frightful, grievous, gruesome, horrible, horrific, iniquitous, macabre, monstrous, plaguy, scarey, scary, towering, tragic, tremendous, ungodly, wretched), лякаючий. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "frightening": frighteningly. (additional references) | |
| |
"Frightening" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: freightening, frightning, frigtening, frigthening. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "frightening" (pronounced frī"tuning or frī"tning) |
| 7 | -r ī" t u n i ng | brightening. |
| 6 | -ī" t u n i ng | enlightening, heightening, lightening, tightening, whitening. |
| 5 | -t u n i ng | battening, disheartening, fattening, flattening, heartening, shortening, straightening, sweetening, threatening. |
| 4 | -u n i ng | abandoning, apportioning, auctioning, auditioning, awakening, bargaining, beckoning, blackening, bludgeoning, broadening, burdening, burgeoning, captioning, cautioning, championing, cheapening, christening, coarsening, commissioning, conditioning, cushioning, dampening, darkening, deadening, deafening, decommissioning, deepening, determining, disciplining, disillusioning, envisioning, examining, fashioning, fastening, freshening, functioning, gardening, glistening, happening, hardening, hastening, imagining, imprisoning, jettisoning, leavening, lengthening, lessening, likening, listening, loosening, maddening, malfunctioning, margining, mentioning, motioning, opening, orphaning, pardoning, partitioning, petitioning, poisoning, positioning, provisioning, questioning, quickening, rationing, reasoning, reawakening, reckoning, reconditioning, reexamining, reopening, repositioning, ripening, ruining, saddening, sanctioning, seasoning, sectioning, sharpening, sickening, siphoning, slackening, softening, stationing, stiffening, strengthening, summoning, thickening, toughening, unquestioning, vacationing, weakening, widening, worsening. |
| 3 | -n i ng | abstaining, adjoining, adjourning, aligning, ascertaining, assigning, attaining, awning, ballooning, banning, beginning, bemoaning, binning, boning, branning, brining, Browning, burning, campaigning, caning, Canning, careening, cartooning, chaining, chaperoning, churning, cleaning, cloning, clowning, cocooning, coining, combining, complaining, concerning, condoning, confining, conning, constraining, containing, convening, Corning, couponing, crooning, crowning, cunning, dawning, declining, defining, demeaning, Denning, designing, detaining, dining, Dinning, discerning, disdaining, divining, donning, Downing, draining, droning, drowning, Dunning, Durning, earning, enjoining, entertaining, evening, explaining, fanning, fawning, feigning, fining, finning, frowning, gaining, ginning, governing, greening, grinning, groaning, gunning, headlining, honing, Horning, housecleaning, impugning, inning, intertwining, intervening, intoning, ironing, jawboning, joining, Kenning, leaning, learning, lightning, lining, loaning, machining, maintaining, Manning, meaning, midmorning, mining, moaning, morning, mourning, obtaining, opining, ordaining, outlining, overrunning, overtraining, overturning, owning, panning, penning, pertaining, phoning, pining, pinning, planning, postponing, preening, preplanning, pruning, quarantining, raining, realigning, reassigning, reclining, redefining, redesigning, redlining, refining, refraining, regaining, reigning, reining, rejoining, relearning, remaining, rerunning, resigning, restraining, retaining, retraining, returning, rezoning, running, scanning, screening, shining, shunning, signing, sinning, spanning, spawning, spinning, spurning, staining, stoning, straining, streamlining, stunning, sunning, sustaining, swooning, tanning, telephoning, thinning, toning, training, tuning, turning, twining, underlining, undermining, underpinning, unreasoning, Vining, waning, warning, weaning, whining, wining, winning, yawning, yearning, zoning. |
| 5 | -ī" t n i ng | lightning. |
| 3 | -n i ng | abandoning, abstaining, adjoining, adjourning, aligning, apportioning, ascertaining, assigning, attaining, auctioning, auditioning, awakening, awning, ballooning, banning, bargaining, battening, beckoning, beginning, bemoaning, binning, blackening, bludgeoning, boning, branning, brightening, brining, broadening, Browning, burdening, burgeoning, burning, campaigning, caning, Canning, captioning, careening, cartooning, cautioning, chaining, championing, chaperoning, cheapening, christening, churning, cleaning, cloning, clowning, coarsening, cocooning, coining, combining, commissioning, complaining, concerning, conditioning, condoning, confining, conning, constraining, containing, convening, Corning, couponing, crooning, crowning, cunning, cushioning, dampening, darkening, dawning, deadening, deafening, declining, decommissioning, deepening, defining, demeaning, Denning, designing, detaining, determining, dining, Dinning, discerning, disciplining, disdaining, disheartening, disillusioning, divining, donning, Downing, draining, droning, drowning, Dunning, Durning, earning, enjoining, enlightening, entertaining, envisioning, evening, examining, explaining, fanning, fashioning, fastening, fattening, fawning, feigning, fining, finning, flattening, freshening, frowning, functioning, gaining, gardening, ginning, glistening, governing, greening, grinning, groaning, gunning, happening, hardening, hastening, headlining, heartening, heightening, honing, Horning, housecleaning, imagining, imprisoning, impugning, inning, intertwining, intervening, intoning, ironing, jawboning, jettisoning, joining, Kenning, leaning, learning, leavening, lengthening, lessening, lightening, likening, lining, listening, loaning, loosening, machining, maddening, maintaining, malfunctioning, Manning, margining, meaning, mentioning, midmorning, mining, moaning, morning, motioning, mourning, obtaining, opening, opining, ordaining, orphaning, outlining, overrunning, overtraining, overturning, owning, panning, pardoning, partitioning, penning, pertaining, petitioning, phoning, pining, pinning, planning, poisoning, positioning, postponing, preening, preplanning, provisioning, pruning, quarantining, questioning, quickening, raining, rationing, realigning, reasoning, reassigning, reawakening, reckoning, reclining, reconditioning, redefining, redesigning, redlining, reexamining, refining, refraining, regaining, reigning, reining, rejoining, relearning, remaining, reopening, repositioning, rerunning, resigning, restraining, retaining, retraining, returning, rezoning, ripening, ruining, running, saddening, sanctioning, scanning, screening, seasoning, sectioning, sharpening, shining, shortening, shunning, sickening, signing, sinning, siphoning, slackening, softening, spanning, spawning, spinning, spurning, staining, stationing, stiffening, stoning, straightening, straining, streamlining, strengthening, stunning, summoning, sunning, sustaining, sweetening, swooning, tanning, telephoning, thickening, thinning, threatening, tightening, toning, toughening, training, tuning, turning, twining, underlining, undermining, underpinning, unquestioning, unreasoning, vacationing, Vining, waning, warning, weakening, weaning, whining, whitening, widening, wining, winning, worsening, yawning, yearning, zoning. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-f-g-g-h-i-i-n-n-r-t" | |
-1 letter: freighting, refighting. | |
-2 letters: fingering, frighting, infighter, rehinging. | |
-3 letters: feigning, feinting, fighting, frighten, fringing, girthing, grifting, infringe, inhering, neighing, refining, reigning, righting, tingeing. | |
-4 letters: fighter, finnier, freight, gifting, ginnier, girning, girting, hefting, heiring, henting, hinging, hinting, igniter, infight, inherit, niftier, nighing, nightie, refight, reining, renting, rifting, ringent, ringgit, ringing, thinner, tiering, tinging, tinnier, trining. | |
-5 letters: engirt. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-f-g-g-h-i-i-n-n-r-t" | |
+2 letters: frighteningly. | |
| 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 72 69 67 68 74 65 6E 69 6E 67 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
|
| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
|
| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
|
| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
|
Morse Code (1836) (references)..-. .-. .. --. .... - . -. .. -. --. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
|
Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000110 01110010 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01100101 01101110 01101001 01101110 01100111 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)F r i g h t e n i n g |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0046 0072 0069 0067 0068 0074 0065 006E 0069 006E 0067 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
|
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4084757374867180758073 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Sounds 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Quotations: Spoken 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Orthography 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
