Standard Lemma guide

scary

adj · adv · noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: skâr'ē
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈskɛə.ɹi/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈskɛː.ɹi/
  • General-American: /ˈskɛə.ɹi/
  • General-American: /ˈskɛɹ.i/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian: /ˈskeːɹi/
  • New-Zealand: /ˈskeəɹi/ without the cheer–chair merger
  • /ˈskiəɹi/ New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
  • Scotland: /ˈskeɹɪ/
  • Scotland: /ˈskeɹe/
  • /ˈskɜːɹɪ/ Lancashire, fair–fur merger
  • homophone: skerry (only in accents with the Mary-marry-merry merger)
  • rhymes with -ɛəɹi
  • CMU ARPABET: S K EH1 R IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Causing fear or anxiety

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

Examples

  • 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.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: frightening, hair-raising, petrifying, terrifying, affreux, alarming, spine-tingling, appalling, awful, eldritch, buggish, butt-clenching, buttock-clenching, dismayful, dreadful, fearful, flaysome, flesh-crawling, formidable, freaky, frightensome, frightful, ghastly, ghostly, grisly, hair-curling, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying, horripilating, pulse-pounding, scaring, scary, shocking, skin-crawling, terrible, terrorsome

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Uncannily striking or surprising.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

Examples

  • Linda changed her hair, and it’s scary how much she looks like her mother.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Subject to sudden alarm; easily frightened.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, colloquial

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: nervous, jumpy

Antonyms: none provided

4

adv

Meaning 4

To a scary extent; scarily.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal, not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

Barren land having only a thin coat of grass.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

adjective satellite

Meaning 6

provoking fear terror

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a scary movie
  • the most terrible and shuddery...tales of murder and revenge

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: chilling, scarey, shivery, shuddery

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English scare Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English scary From scare + -y.

From dialectal English scare (“scraggy”).

Across languages

Translations

113 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: frikshme — causing fear or anxiety
  • Amharic: አስፈሪ (āsiferī) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Arabic: مُجَفِّل (mujaffil) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Armenian: վախկոտ (vaxkot) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Azerbaijani: qorxulu — causing fear or anxiety
  • Azerbaijani: qorxunc — causing fear or anxiety
  • Azerbaijani: dəhşətli — causing fear or anxiety
  • Basque: beldurgarria — causing fear or anxiety
  • Belarusian: стра́шны (strášny) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Belarusian: жахлі́вы (žaxlívy) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Bengali: ভীতিকর (bhitikor) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Bulgarian: стра́шен (strášen) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Burmese: ကြောက်စရာ (kraukca.ra) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Catalan: espantós — causing fear or anxiety
  • Chinese Mandarin: 恐怖 (kǒngbù) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Corsican: spaventosu — causing fear or anxiety
  • Corsican: pauroso — causing fear or anxiety
  • Czech: děsivý — causing fear or anxiety
  • Danish: skræmmende — causing fear or anxiety
  • Danish: uhyggelig — causing fear or anxiety
  • Dutch: eng — causing fear or anxiety
  • Esperanto: timiga — causing fear or anxiety
  • Finnish: pelottava — causing fear or anxiety
  • French: sinistre — causing fear or anxiety
  • French: terrifiant — causing fear or anxiety
  • French: affreux — causing fear or anxiety
  • Georgian: საშინელი (sašineli) — causing fear or anxiety
  • German: schrecklich — causing fear or anxiety
  • German: furchterregend — causing fear or anxiety
  • German: beängstigend — causing fear or anxiety
  • Gothic: 𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃 (agisleiks) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Greek: τρομακτικός (tromaktikós) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Gujarati: ડરામણી (ḍarāmṇī) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Hausa: ban tsoro — causing fear or anxiety
  • Hebrew: מפחיד (mafkhíd) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Hindi: भयानक (bhayānak) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Hindi: डरावना (ḍarāvnā) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Hindi: भुतहा (bhuthā) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Hungarian: ijesztő — causing fear or anxiety
  • Hungarian: félelmetes — causing fear or anxiety
  • Icelandic: skelfilegur — causing fear or anxiety
  • Indonesian: menakutkan — causing fear or anxiety
  • Irish: scanrúil — causing fear or anxiety
  • Italian: pauroso — causing fear or anxiety
  • Japanese: 怖い (kowai) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Javanese: medeni — causing fear or anxiety
  • Kannada: ಹೆದರಿಕೆಯೆ (hedarikeye) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Kazakh: қорқынышты (qorqynyşty) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Khmer: គួរឱ្យខ្លាច (kuor aoy khlach) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Korean: 공포의 (gongpoui) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Korean: 무섭다 (museopda) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Kyrgyz: бирлери коркунучтуу да (birleri korkunuctuu da) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Latin: terribilis — causing fear or anxiety
  • Latin: metūculōsus — causing fear or anxiety
  • Latvian: biedējoši — causing fear or anxiety
  • Latvian: atbaidošs — causing fear or anxiety
  • Lithuanian: baisu — causing fear or anxiety
  • Macedonian: страшен (strašen) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Malagasy: mampatahotra — causing fear or anxiety
  • Malagasy: mampahatahotra — causing fear or anxiety
  • Malagasy: hampatahotra — causing fear or anxiety
  • Malay: menakutkan — causing fear or anxiety
  • Malayalam: ഭീതിദമാണ് (bhītidamāṇŭ) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Malayalam: ഭയപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന (bhayappeṭuttunna) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Māori: whakamataku — causing fear or anxiety
  • Māori: wehiwehi — causing fear or anxiety
  • Marathi: भितीदायक (bhitīdāyak) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Marathi: धडकी भरवणारा (dhaḍkī bharavṇārā) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Mongolian: аймшигтай (ajmšigtaj) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Mongolian: Аймшгийн (Ajmšgiin) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Nepali: डरलाग्दो (ḍarlāgdo) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Norwegian: skummel — causing fear or anxiety
  • Old English: afæran — causing fear or anxiety
  • Persian: ترسناک (tarsnâk) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Persian: بیمناک (bimnâk) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Polish: straszny — causing fear or anxiety
  • Polish: przerażający — causing fear or anxiety
  • Polish: straszliwy — causing fear or anxiety
  • Portuguese: assustador — causing fear or anxiety
  • Punjabi: ਡਰਾਉਣਾ (ḍarāuṇā) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Romanian: înfricoșător — causing fear or anxiety
  • Russian: стра́шный (strášnyj) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Russian: ужа́сный (užásnyj) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Samoan: mataʻu — causing fear or anxiety
  • Samoan: taufaafefe — causing fear or anxiety
  • Sanskrit: भीष्म (bhīṣma) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Scottish Gaelic: eagalach — causing fear or anxiety
  • Serbo-Croatian: страшан — causing fear or anxiety
  • Serbo-Croatian: strašan — causing fear or anxiety
  • Sinhalese: බය හිතෙන (baya hitena) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Slovak: desivý — causing fear or anxiety
  • Slovene: strašen — causing fear or anxiety
  • Spanish: temible — causing fear or anxiety
  • Spanish: espantoso — causing fear or anxiety
  • Spanish: temeroso — causing fear or anxiety
  • Swahili: inatisha — causing fear or anxiety
  • Swedish: läskig — causing fear or anxiety
  • Tagalog: nakatatakot — causing fear or anxiety
  • Tagalog: katakot-takot — causing fear or anxiety
  • Tajik: тарсовар (tarsovar) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Tamil: பயங்கரமான (payaṅkaramāṉa) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Telugu: భయానకంగా (bhayānakaṅgā) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Telugu: భయపెట్టాడు (bhayapeṭṭāḍu) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Thai: น่ากลัว (nâa-gluua) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Turkish: korkunç — causing fear or anxiety
  • Turkmen: gorkunç — causing fear or anxiety
  • Ukrainian: страшни́й (strašnýj) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Ukrainian: жахли́вий (žaxlývyj) — causing fear or anxiety
  • Uzbek: qo'rqinchli — causing fear or anxiety
  • Vietnamese: đáng sợ — causing fear or anxiety
  • Welsh: brawychus — causing fear or anxiety
  • Xhosa: eyoyikisayo — causing fear or anxiety
  • Yiddish: סקערי (skeri) — causing fear or anxiety
Real reading context

scary in complete knowledge articles