terrify
verb
ter·ri·fy
ˈter-ə-ˌfī 
ˈte-rə-
terrified; terrifying
1
a
: to drive or impel by menacing : scare
b
: deter, intimidate
2
: to fill with terror
Examples of terrify in a Sentence
The thought of dying alone terrifies her.
the prospect of speaking in front of a huge crowd of people absolutely terrifies me
Recent Examples on the Web
Investigators soon connected Williams to the string of child killings that had terrified Atlanta for nearly two years.
—
Christina Coulter, PEOPLE, 29 Nov. 2025
Our sense of our own competency enhances our ability to behave courageously, even if we’re terrified initially.
—Ranjay Gulati, CNBC, 28 Nov. 2025
The only other group exploring RL for LLMs was DeepSeek, the Chinese OpenAI competitor that would later terrify Silicon Valley.
—Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 28 Nov. 2025
Bob is terrified of Loki and runs from him through the neighborhood.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 27 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for terrify
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Christina Coulter, PEOPLE, 29 Nov. 2025
Our sense of our own competency enhances our ability to behave courageously, even if we’re terrified initially.
—Ranjay Gulati, CNBC, 28 Nov. 2025
The only other group exploring RL for LLMs was DeepSeek, the Chinese OpenAI competitor that would later terrify Silicon Valley.
—Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 28 Nov. 2025
Bob is terrified of Loki and runs from him through the neighborhood.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 27 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for terrify
Cite this Entry
“Terrify.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrify. Accessed 1 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
terrify
verb
ter·ri·fy
ˈter-ə-ˌfī
terrified; terrifying
: to fill with terror
terrifyingly
adverb
-ˌfī-iŋ-lē
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