different between fearful vs frightening
fearful
English
Alternative forms
- fearefull (obsolete)
- fearfull (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear +? -ful.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /?f??f?l/
- (General American) IPA(key): /?f??f?l/
- Rhymes: -???f?l
- Hyphenation: fear?ful
Adjective
fearful (comparative fearfuller or fearfuler or more fearful, superlative fearfullest or fearfulest or most fearful)
- Frightening.
- Tending to fear; timid.
- a fearful boy
- (dated) Terrible; shockingly bad.
- (now rare) Frightened; filled with terror.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:
- Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessant payns […]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:
Synonyms
- (frightened): frightened, timid, timorous
- See also Thesaurus:afraid and Thesaurus:cowardly
Translations
Adverb
fearful (comparative more fearful, superlative most fearful)
- (dialect) Extremely; fearfully.
Further reading
- fearful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- fearful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Anagrams
- Lauffer
fearful From the web:
- what fearful means
- what fearfully and wonderfully made mean
- what fearful tidings did it contain
- what fearful hand or eye
- what fearful symmetry
- what fearful symmetry mean
- what fearful in french
- what fearful means in spanish
frightening
English
Etymology
frighten +? -ing.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?f?a?t?n??/, /?f?a?tn??/
- Hyphenation: fright?en?ing
Adjective
frightening (comparative more frightening, superlative most frightening)
- Causing fear; of capable of causing fear; scary.
- Riding the rollercoaster was a frightening experience.
- (figuratively) Awful, terrible, very bad.
Synonyms
- Thesaurus:frightening
Derived terms
- frighteningly
Translations
Verb
frightening
- present participle of frighten
- The scientist was frightening the timid children.
frightening From the web:
- what frightening means
- what does frightening mean
- definition frightening
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