Synonyms

eerie

American

[eer-ee] / ˈɪər i /

Or eery

adjective

eerier, eeriest

uncanny, so as to inspire superstitious fear; weird

an eerie midnight howl.
Chiefly Scot. affected with superstitious fear.

eerie British

/ ˈɪərɪ /

adjective

(esp of places, an atmosphere, etc) mysteriously or uncannily frightening or disturbing; weird; ghostly

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

See weird.

Other Word Forms

eerily adverb
eeriness noun

Etymology

Origin of eerie

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English eri, dialectal variant of argh, Old English earg “cowardly”; cognate with Old Frisian erg, Old Norse argr “evil,” German arg “cowardly”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Memo Guerra’s honking jazz score adds an another playful layer of life — it’s the noise of a bizarro nightclub where the air shivers with eerie musical saws.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026

What happened next had an eerie feeling of familiarity about it.

From Slate • Mar. 29, 2026

At first, the feeling was eerie; the cameras peered into a city with dimmed lights, shrouded in silence.

From Salon • Mar. 7, 2026

"This is Mexico after all - usually there'd be music, people outside, people enjoying life, and there's a really, kind of eerie, feeling in the air here," he added.

From BBC • Feb. 23, 2026

That’s how I pictured her home: decorated with skeletons and bats and eerie jack-o’-lanterns all year long.

From "The World According to Humphrey" by Betty G. Birney

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023