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fright

noun

Simple meaning

Someone strange, ugly or shocking, producing a feeling of alarm or aversion.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fryt
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfɹaɪt

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.

noun

  1. Someone strange, ugly or shocking, producing a feeling of alarm or aversion.

  2. A state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Someone strange, ugly or shocking, producing a feeling of alarm or aversion.

Used this way, fright is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Everyday but emotionally strong

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

stage frighttake frightgreat frightsudden fright

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • stage frightnounCompound term

    Fear that affects a person about to face an audience.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: someone strange or ugly or shocking

scareaffrightArchaic

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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.