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Showing results for eerie. Search instead for eerier.
Synonyms

eerie

American  
[eer-ee] / ˈɪər i /
Or eery

adjective

eerier, eeriest
  1. uncanny, so as to inspire superstitious fear; weird

    an eerie midnight howl.

  2. Chiefly Scot. affected with superstitious fear.


eerie British  
/ ˈɪərɪ /

adjective

  1. (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

Synonym Usage

See weird.

Other Word Forms

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”

Explanation

Eerie means spooky, creepy or suggestively supernatural. If it's eerie, it's sure to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Back in the 1300s when eerie first came on the scene, it meant "fearful or timid." It took a good 500 years or so before it morphed into the adjective we know today, which now means "causing fear because of strangeness." And the strangeness is key: Something that's eerie isn't just scary. It's mysterious, ghostly, and gives you the creeps. Like dark old castles, misty graveyards and creaky sounds in the middle of the night.

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Vocabulary lists containing eerie

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.

See Examples For:

"People were staying indoors, so it was eerie, and very sad."

From BBC Jul. 28, 2026

Common to much of the user-generated content are eerie images and haunting stories of mysterious, yellow wallpapered corridors and empty office-like spaces that exist outside of, or beyond, reality itself.

From Science Daily Jul. 26, 2026

The eerie ambient music that drives “Obsession” — so artfully serrated and delicately mangled by Burwell — emerged from a counterintuitive creative nuance that AI could never capture.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 21, 2026

The stock market in July has settled into an almost eerie calm on the surface.

From MarketWatch Jul. 19, 2026

Fact: Walking in the narrow glow from a flashlight—or even two flashlights—had the effect of making everything outside that glow seem eerie.

From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Schlossberg, we should mention here, is Kennedy’s cousin once removed, which adds an even eerier aura to the story.

From Slate Aug. 7, 2024

Even eerier was the lead story, about Adolf Hitler and the rise of his Third Reich.

From Washington Post Sep. 26, 2021

A stalwart of the LA psychedelic scene who has played with musicians including Ariel Pink and Tim Presley, Jack Name’s own music is eerier than that of his energetic peers.

From The Guardian Dec. 27, 2019

The result is even eerier than the Alexa connected to a singing Big Mouth Billy Bass robot that made some waveslast year.

From Seattle Times Jan. 26, 2017

The house seemed eerier than ever, full of subdued complaints and whisperings.

From Gone to Earth by Webb, Mary Gladys Meredith

With worries about the spread of gun ownership in his head, Fogerty devised one of his eeriest productions for this swampy psych-rock number.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 3, 2025

It was the eeriest week yet in the yearslong saga that is the unraveling of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

From Slate May 13, 2023

The eeriest Gamache novel yet, “A World of Curiosities” is also one of Penny’s most intricately plotted and harrowing.

From Washington Post Dec. 2, 2022

Plenty has been written about no crowds in sporting stadiums, but a Wales and England encounter in the Six Nations presented perhaps the eeriest atmosphere yet.

From BBC Feb. 27, 2021

The eeriest thing was a sound like thunder that rolled across the water.

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan

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