eerie
Americanadjective
-
uncanny, so as to inspire superstitious fear; weird
an eerie midnight howl.
-
Chiefly Scot. affected with superstitious fear.
adjective
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.
"It had a cold, dark, eerie feeling in there," Davies said.
From BBC • Mar. 25, 2026
Legos were used to send a warning to Ukrainians as the country was launching a new recruitment drive—to eerie effect.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026
At first, the feeling was eerie; the cameras peered into a city with dimmed lights, shrouded in silence.
From Salon • Mar. 7, 2026
The facts in the Gray case bear an eerie similarity to the Crumbleys’.
From Slate • Mar. 5, 2026
Long, cool perspectives of modern architecture, rising phosphorescent and eerie from the rubble.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
