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

Worse than the off-label prescribing is the fearmongering.

From Salon • May 11, 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

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

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