freak out
verb
Simple meaning
To react with extreme anger or fear, to the extent that one loses one's composure or behaves irrationally.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
freekowtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɹiˈkaʊt
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
informalintransitive
To react with extreme anger or fear, to the extent that one loses one's composure or behaves irrationally.
informalintransitive
To be upset or nervous; to be scared or unnerved.
informalintransitive
Lose one's nerve
informaltransitive
To scare or unnerve someone.
informalintransitive
To adopt an unconventional (especially countercultural) persona or appearance.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To react with extreme anger or fear, to the extent that one loses one's composure or behaves irrationally.
In this sense, freak out is a strong, expressive word and suggests enthusiasm that has gone past what most people would call reasonable. Among friends, and about hobbies, it can be worn proudly; about someone's politics or beliefs it usually sounds like criticism.
- Emotional tone
- Context-dependent
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.