fearmongering

American  

[feer-mahng-ger-ing] / ˈfɪərˌmɑŋ gər ɪŋ /

noun

1. the practice or strategy of trying to make people fearful or anxious as a means of manipulating them.

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adjective

1. trying to make people fearful or anxious as a means of manipulating them.

Example Sentences

“These features are there to protect long-term investors from that fearmongering that can go on.”

From MarketWatch • Jun. 24, 2026

As the scramble has played out, rumors and fearmongering have ricocheted across Wall Street.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 20, 2026

Fiechter dismisses this as fearmongering, saying he is "certain that the EU will not allow this to happen", and arguing that the agreements with Switzerland are "entirely in the EU's own interest".

From BBC • Jun. 12, 2026

Early in the reign of social media, Messing said, there was much fearmongering about how these digital platforms spelled the death of reading.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026

She didn’t buy into fearmongering and at the same time seemed equally inoculated against any sort of pie-in-the-sky idealism.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama