fearful
Americanadjective
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causing or apt to cause fear; frightening.
a fearful apparition.
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feeling fear, dread, apprehension, or solicitude.
fearful for his life.
- Synonyms:
- worried, concerned, anxious, solicitous, distrustful, uneasy, apprehensive, timorous, timid, afraid
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full of awe or reverence.
fearful of the Lord.
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showing or caused by fear.
fearful behavior exhibited by dogs in the animal shelter.
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extreme in size, intensity, or badness: fearful poverty.
a fearful head cold;
fearful poverty.
adjective
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having fear; afraid
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causing fear; frightening
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informal very unpleasant or annoying
a fearful cold
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fearful
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English ferful(l); see origin at fear, -ful
Explanation
If you're fearful, you're afraid of something. A kid who's fearful around dogs might cry or run away when sees even a small puppy. To be fearful is, literally, to be full of fear. You can also use this adjective to describe the thing that scares you: "I lay awake all night listening to the fearful creaks of the old house around me." Some people are always fearful — it's just part of who they are — while others are only fearful in certain instances. You might be fearful on airplanes but fearless when riding a horse.
Vocabulary lists containing fearful
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.
Cubs in particular can become less fearful and develop a taste for farmed produce and common fruits such as persimmon.
From Barron's • May 8, 2026
But equities are more likely to struggle when stock-market investors become fearful about risks to growth, said Martin Adams.
From MarketWatch • May 6, 2026
One can decry Broadway’s fearful economic dependence on the familiar while still recognizing, as this sampling of the spring musical season illustrates, that all art is fundamentally an act of reinvention.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026
But it refrained from doing so, fearful of U.S. retaliation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026
She stole toward it, half fearful at being alone, but unable to resist the desire to fill her basket with it, exactly as Zeus had supposed she would feel.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
