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

Private-fund managers, including Blackstone, Apollo Global Management and Blue Owl, have blamed fearmongering about a recent spate of corporate bankruptcies, like that of automotive supplier First Brands, for the surge of withdrawals.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 3, 2026

In other words, we shouldn’t take RFK Jr.’s fearmongering at face value and adopt his seeming position that the average autistic person is highly disabled or somehow living a worse life than a neurotypical person.

From Slate • Sep. 25, 2025

In the southeastern port city of Changwon, home to the smaller of GM’s two finished car plants, local officials have been reluctant to give air to what they describe as premature fearmongering.

From Los Angeles Times • May 16, 2025

Looking backward there was fear-inducing grievances and fearmongering about freed Black people and white abolitionists before the Civil War and during the era of Reconstruction.

From Salon • Mar. 23, 2024

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