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chilling

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Causing mild fear.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

chiling

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtʃɪlɪŋ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Causing mild fear.

  2. Causing cold.

  3. Becoming cold.

noun

  1. The act by which something is chilled.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Causing

chilling effectchilling injury

Other combinations

chilling windchilling thoughtafter chillingchilling requirement

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • chillnounBase word

    Coldness due to a cold environment.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • chillernounPerson or profession

    Excitation that makes your hair stand up or that chills your bones.

  • chillynounDerived noun

    Very hot and finely tapering pepper of special pungency.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: causing mild fear

alarmingscaryInformal

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.