as in terrifying
causing fear
a truly frightening movie
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in scaring
to strike with fear
around the campfire the campers tried to frighten one another with ghostly legends and grisly tales
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of frightening
Richard Fowler, Forbes.com, 18 June 2026
There, passing fishermen began referring to the frightening state of the nearby sea.
—Literary Hub, 17 June 2026
Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic, 30 Jan. 2026
But monks there complained that the slain king was walking around at night, frightening them with strange sounds.
—Rivka Galchen, New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for frightening
Adjective
The technology is simply frightening.
—Richard Fowler, Forbes.com, 18 June 2026
There, passing fishermen began referring to the frightening state of the nearby sea.
—Literary Hub, 17 June 2026
Verb
Clumsiness notwithstanding, bringing a criminal case against a journalist who was reporting on a protest is an authoritarian tactic—a means of frightening the press away from uncovering the truth.
—Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic, 30 Jan. 2026
But monks there complained that the slain king was walking around at night, frightening them with strange sounds.
—Rivka Galchen, New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for frightening
Recent Examples of Synonyms for frightening
Adjective
-
This terrifying, wondrous circle spinning around us here on Earth.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
19 June 2026
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What would be terrifying is to not have that opportunity.—
Yvonne Villarreal,
Los Angeles Times,
19 June 2026
Verb
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Episodes find the gang scaring people for class assignments while carefully keeping the monster world under wraps.—
Skyler Trepel,
Entertainment Weekly,
20 June 2026
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But she was saved by three bystanders who yelled out, scaring him off and chasing him through the park, sources said.—
Rocco Parascandola,
New York Daily News,
13 June 2026
Adjective
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There were some scary moments at the nest earlier in the spring when viewers watched one of the eaglets, then just named USS 11, swallow a fishhook.—
Madeline Bartos,
CBS News,
22 June 2026
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Exciting but scary findings During another of the key microplastics studies published so far, researchers at the University of Rhode Island tested mice that had been modified to include a gene, APOE4, linked to Alzheimer’s disease.—
Michael Hawthorne,
Chicago Tribune,
21 June 2026
Verb
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Some cyclists sped by pretty quickly, startling us and our dog.—
Maura Fox,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
27 Mar. 2026
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Hauge called that startling, given that court filing fees alone cost just as much.—
Frederick Melo,
Twin Cities,
4 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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More than 30 years ago, Anna and her manager and trusted companion, Betsy Samson (a formidable Denise Burse), fled to Europe on the heels of a highbrow scandal.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
19 June 2026
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Sure, Carpenter’s cut-the-ruggers are pizzazzing with their flips and cartwheels, but the Grande gang make formidable dance foes in the Sharks and Jets sense of the word.—
Anthony D'Alessandro,
Deadline,
19 June 2026
Verb
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Ladeira uses a mister to spray the plate with housemade rose vinegar to give a whiff of funky brightness without shocking the palate.—
Sean Timberlake,
Sacbee.com,
17 June 2026
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This sweeping novel opens in nineteen-sixties Calcutta, when a three-year-old girl demands to eat fish, shocking her family of Jains.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
15 June 2026
Adjective
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Iran’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad World Cup got a lot better Sunday.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
21 June 2026
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What started as a horrible mistake ended up bringing the community together.—
Andrea Nakano,
CBS News,
18 June 2026
Adjective
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This is Conolly’s Folly, built in 1740 at the height of a terrible famine.—
Amelia Soth,
JSTOR Daily,
18 June 2026
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The heroes who save us from these awful, terrible music haters do so with force.—
David John Chávez,
Mercury News,
18 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Frightening.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/frightening. Accessed 24 Jun. 2026.
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