HAIR-RAISER Synonyms: 8 Similar and Opposite Words

hair-raiser

noun

ˈher-ˌrā-zər

as in thriller

something (as a close contest) that induces much suspense as to its outcome since they had been dating for five years, her answer to his proposal wasn't exactly a hair-raiser

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of hair-raiser The streamer has a deep bench of horror films from all eras of cinema among its offerings, from influential classics like Nosferatu (1922) to newer hair-raisers like Possessor (2020), and all kinds of thrillers and chillers in between. —

Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Jan. 2026 And the Halloween-eve hair-raiser adds a cackling skeleton to a horror arcade of ghoulish news for EVs. —

Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2023

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hair-raiser

thriller

Noun

Razor blades and pointe shoes prove pretty lethal in Vicky Jewson’s bloody and blistered ballet thriller, which finds a dysfunctional ballerina troupe fighting for survival after a run-in with a deadly Hungarian mob.

— Lé Baltar, IndieWire, 14 Mar. 2026
Netflix’s refugee thriller His House and Jordan Peele’s Lovecraft Country showed early signs of her penchant for horror as a metaphor for racial oppression.

— Kemi Alemoru, Glamour, 14 Mar. 2026