fearful
fearful Lexical Profile
fearful Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Feeling or showing fear, anxiety, or apprehension about a potential danger or outcome.
"Many residents remained fearful of losing their homes as the floodwaters continued to rise."
Causing or likely to cause fear, dread, or awe; frightening.
"The ancient mariners spoke in hushed tones of the fearful storms that battered the rocky cape."
British Very great, extreme, or unpleasant (used informally for emphasis).
"The renovations left the entire ground floor in a fearful mess."
Word Nuance & Usage
While 'fearful' most commonly means feeling afraid or anxious, in formal or literary contexts it can also mean causing fear, and in British English it is sometimes used informally to mean extreme or terrible (as in 'a fearful mess'). Compare with 'fearsome', which specifically means frightening in appearance or manner.
• Rhymes for fearful
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
From Middle English ferful, formed from the noun fear (from Old English fær, meaning sudden calamity or danger) plus the adjectival suffix -ful.