What does scary mean?
Scary means (now chiefly informal) Causing fear or anxiety.
Scary
/ˈskɛə.ɹi/ · adjective
Meaning
(now chiefly informal) Causing fear or anxiety.
Definitions by Sense
- (now chiefly informal) Causing fear or anxiety
- (informal) Uncannily striking or surprising.
- (US, colloquial) Subject to sudden alarm; easily frightened.
- (informal) To a scary extent; scarily.
- Barren land having only a thin coat of grass.
Example Sentences
The tiger's jaws were scary.
She was hiding behind her pillow during the scary parts of the film.
He watched Conjuring but it was too scary for him.
Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst the leaves.
“[…] How scary it is to know that everyone I love depends on me! I’m afraid I’ll do something wrong.”
Age notwithstanding, none of these men seem interested in sailing to Byzantium anyway: Justine’s got them all on the last stage to someplace wilder and scarier, where Yeats’s “monuments of unaging intellect” are thoroughly beside the point.
The biggest, scariest, scarriest man in the room said, “It's about time, Jones.”
Linda changed her hair, and it’s scary how much she looks like her mother.
Synonyms for scary
Antonyms for scary
Related Words
Word Forms
- scarier
- scariest
- scarey
Usage Notes
Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.
Practice and Learn More
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a synonym for scary?
Common synonyms include frightening, hair-raising, petrifying, terrifying.
What is the opposite of scary?
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
How do you use scary in a sentence?
The tiger's jaws were scary.
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.