scary
Americanadjective
-
causing fright or alarm.
-
easily frightened; timid.
adjective
-
causing fear or alarm; frightening
-
easily roused to fear; timid
Other Word Forms
Adjective Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of scary
Explanation
If something is scary, it makes you afraid, or scared. Horror films — scary movies — are a very popular genre. Apparently people like to be frightened. Scary is more a more casual way to say "frightening," and you can also use it to describe something that's just bizarre or odd or exceptional: you've become such a good golfer, it's scary; or, you cleaned up you room so fast, it's scary. Note that there is no "e" in scary, even though the verb to scare ends in one.
Vocabulary lists containing scary
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -y
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"Leapin' Lizards! Is That a Real Dragon?"
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Unit 18, Lesson 1
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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:
“We see shadow figures … there’s a certain area where they pass back and forth. They don’t do anything, but they’re scary as hell,” Kobliha says of unusual sightings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
"This could potentially overtake us here, this has gotten a little scary," a crew member says as the train rushes past burning trees near Armstrong, Ontario.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
"They're saying it's going to be huge; of course that's scary, right?"
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
You realize that the challenges posed by climate change, however scary and daunting, aren’t insurmountable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
“They look scary but they’re harmless,” said Razi.
From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook
Hannah once said: “I know a dark alley is scary. But I’ll tell you, there’s no scarier place than a country road at night when the sky’s gone full dark and no stars.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
On the scarier side, Wright says there's another place we can already see the combination of robotics and agentic AI: battlefield drones.
From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2026
How do you make a film scary when every waking day is scarier?
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026
Eye-watering capex, like a blunt medical diagnosis, can sometimes sound far scarier than it ultimately proves to be.
From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026
That's a lot scarier than going to New York City, so maybe I'm not brave.
From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi
"And the scariest thing is for the children. My children are just very afraid."
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
Less than a year ago, Boston superstar Jayson Tatum suffered basketball’s scariest injury.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
Abi, who is from Manchester, struggles with health anxiety and finds a chatbot gives more tailored advice than an internet search, which will often take her straight to the scariest possibilities.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026
Without my boyfriend’s paycheck buffering our vibes-based accounting, it was time to face the scariest part of managing your money: the spending audit.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 31, 2026
This was the scariest night of my life!
From "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat" by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
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.
