Dictionary › F › fearful

fearful

2 syllables
adjectiveadverb
Quick answer

As an adjective, fearful means frightening. As an adverb, it means extremely.

Meanings of fearful

9 meanings

adjective

  1. Frightening; causing fear.

  2. Tending to fear; timid.

    “a fearful boy”

  3. now rareFrightened; filled with terror.

  4. Experiencing or showing fear

    “a fearful glance”

    “fearful of criticism”

  5. Lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted

    “cowardly dogs, ye will not aid me then”

    Similar: cowardly

  6. Extremely distressing

    “fearful slum conditions”

    “a frightful mistake”

    Similar: frightful

  7. Timid by nature or revealing timidity

    “timorous little mouse”

    “in a timorous tone”

    “cast fearful glances at the large dog”

    Similar: timorous, trepid
Older and rare meanings (1)

  1. datedTerrible; shockingly bad.

adverb

  1. dialectExtremely; fearfully.

Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0).

Synonyms by meaning

All synonyms for fearful →
adjective: causing fear or dread or terror
awfuldiredirefuldreaddreadeddreadfulfearsomefrightening
adjective: lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted
cowardly
adjective: extremely distressing
frightful
adjective: timid by nature or revealing timidity
timoroustrepid

Words that rhyme with fearful

cheerfultearful

For word games

f4
e1
a1
r1
f4
u1
l1
Scrabble & Words With Friends: valid word13 points before bonuses.7 letters.
Unscramble these letters

Nearby words

FCCFDAFefealtyfearfearedfearfullyfearingfearlessfearlesslyfearlessnessfearsome