Synonyms for scary
- adjective
Most common
alarming frightening terrifying frightful chilling shivery jumpy
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Alarming — causing fear or anxiety
alarming, frightening, terrifying, frightful, horrifying, horrible, hair-raising, eerie, aerie US, fearful, daunting, dreadful, ghastly, horrid, petrifying, ghostly
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Causing fear or anxiety
The tiger's jaws were scary.
- adj. 2
Subject to sudden alarm; easily frightened.
- adj. 3
Uncannily striking or surprising.
Linda changed her hair, and it’s scary how much she looks like her mother.
Related words
- Word family
- scarily
- Other spellings
- scarey
Example sentences
- terrifying Ziri listened to one of Rima's terrifying stories.
- frightening I was terrified of receiving a frightening answer.
- alarming The Gobi Desert is expanding at an alarming rate.
- frightful It was frightful when my car skidded on the ice.
- timid She seems oddly shy and timid for a press officer.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| scary | rising | |
| terrifying | rising | |
| frightening | rising | |
| alarming | steady | |
| frightful | steady | |
| timid | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 5 letters
- eerie2, timid2, jumpy2, aerie2
- 6 letters
- horrid2
- 7 letters
- nervous2, fearful2, ghastly2, ghostly2, shivery
- 8 letters
- horrible3, dreadful2, chilling2, alarming3, daunting2, shuddery
- 9 letters
- frightful2
- 10 letters
- terrifying4, horrifying4, petrifying
- 11 letters
- frightening3
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (eerie2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- angoissant
- Italiano
- angoscioso
- Español
- espeluznante
- Català
- anguniós