ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Fearful

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Pronunciation /ˈfɪə(ɹ)fəl/ · Part of speech adjective

Quick meaning: Fearful is an adjective meaning Frightening; causing fear.

Meaning

Frightening; causing fear.

More Meanings

  1. Tending to fear; timid.
  2. (now rare) Frightened; filled with terror.
  3. (dated) Terrible; shockingly bad.
  4. (dialectal) Extremely; fearfully.

Example Sentences

a fearful boy
Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessant payns […]
Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me, But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
“He is fearful handsome, as you know,” she said remorsefully, “you cannot imagine, Georgiana, the joy when I first fell in love with him.”

Word Forms

Synonyms for fearful

Depending on context, synonyms include frightened, timid, timorous, dread, dreadful, alarming.

Antonyms for fearful

Common opposites include brave, courageous.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include afraid, frightful, frightening, fearsome, alarming, dreaded.

Related Dictionary Tools

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.