scream
/skɹiːm/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.14 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A loud, emphatic, exclamation of extreme emotion, especially horror, fear, excitement, or anger; it may comprise a word or a sustained, high-pitched vowel sound.
noun
A loud vocalisation of many animals, especially in response to pain or fear.
noun
A form of singing associated with the metal and screamo styles of music. It is a loud, rough, distorted version of the voice; rather than the normal voice of the singer.
noun
An exclamation mark.
Example Sentences
- "I am tender-hearted by nature, and have found my eyes moist many a time over the scream of a wounded hare."
- "We had a real scream of a time at the beach."
- "Amman, though not exactly your world cultural centre, is a scream of a city; all the roads have different names from their official ones, so that maps are useless"
- "I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry."
- "When we crossed the river, I heard a terrible cry, and I blessed the child again, the others said it was only the loon, which screamed for bad weather." "Yes, that would have been sufficient, if there was nothing else but the loon," said Gubjor; "when it screams at a new-born babe, that child is bewitched.""
- "Well, I waited and I waited / For some word from down below / And then ol' Harley started screaming / "Run, my God, now, Carter, go man go!""
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English scremen, borrowed from or cognate with Middle Dutch scremen (“to yell; shout”) and Old Norse skræma (“to terrify; scare”); compare West Flemish schreemen, Zealandic schreême (“to shout; yell; cry”), Swedish skrämma (“to spook; frighten”), Danish skræmme (“to scare”), West Frisian skrieme (“to weep”). Compare also Swedish skräna (“to yell; shout; howl”), Dutch schreien (“to cry; weep”), German schreien (“to scream”). Related to shriek, skrike.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: scremen, skræma
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /skɹiːm/
Usage
Inflected Forms
screams (plural)
screams (present, singular)
screaming (participle, present)
screamed (participle, past)
screamed (past)
screamt (nonstandard, participle)
screamt (nonstandard, past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
screamed (first person, past)
screamest (archaic, present)
screamed (past, second person)