fear
/fɪə/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.95 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
Uncountable
noun
A feeling of dread and anxiety when waking after drinking a lot of alcohol, wondering what one did while drunk.
British usage; Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "He was struck by fear on seeing the snake."
- "I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed."
- "Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers."
- "Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear."
- "Not everybody has the same fears."
- "I have a fear of ants."
Etymology
From Middle English feer, fere, fer (“fear”), from Old English fǣr, ġefǣr (“calamity, sudden danger, peril, sudden attack, terrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *fērō, *fērą (“danger”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through, carry forth, try”). Cognate with Dutch gevaar (“danger, risk, peril”), German Gefahr (“danger, hazard, risk”), Danish fare (“danger, hazard, risk”), Faroese and Icelandic fár (“accident, anger, calamity”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk fare (“danger”), Swedish fara (“danger, risk, peril”), Latin perīculum (“danger, risk, trial”), Ancient Greek πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, experiment”), Armenian փորձ (pʻorj, “attempt”). Doublet of peril. The verb is from Middle English feren, from Old English fǣran (“to frighten, raven”), from the noun. Cognate with the archaic Dutch verb varen (“to fear, to cause fear”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /fɪə/
- British English: /fɪə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
fears (plural)
fears (present, singular)
fearing (participle, present)
feared (participle, past)
feared (past)
more fear (comparative)
most fear (superlative)
feer (alternative)