terrify
Americanverb (used with object)
-
terrifies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
terrified,
past participle, past
-
terrifying
present participle
verb
Synonym Usage
See frighten.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
terrifysimple
-
terrifiessimple
-
have terrifiedperfect
-
has terrifiedperfect
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am terrifyingprogressive
-
are terrifyingprogressive
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is terrifyingprogressive
-
have been terrifyingperfect progressive
-
has been terrifyingperfect progressive
Past
-
terrifiedsimple
-
had terrifiedperfect
-
was terrifyingprogressive
-
were terrifyingprogressive
-
had been terrifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of terrify
1565–75; < Latin terrificāre, equivalent to terr ( ēre ) to frighten + -ificāre -ify
Explanation
If you terrify someone, that person is enormously frightened of you. The verb terrify is closely related to the word terror, and its Latin root is terrificus, "causing terror." While some people might say that monsters terrify them, others are terrified by heights, snakes, or speaking in public. If there's something that makes you feel a deep, horrible sense of fear, it terrifies you.
Vocabulary lists containing terrify
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
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"In the Spotlight," Vocabulary from the informational text
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The House of Hades
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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:
Day 1 alone might terrify an L.A. commuter: From the Pacific to Pasadena by surface streets, including miles on Santa Monica and Colorado boulevards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
The backrooms seem to exist in part to terrify entrants into redirecting their energies toward better life choices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
He told Salon that equating drug traffickers with terrorist is meant to “stigmatize and terrify people.”
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2026
Mary McCarthy has been driving for almost 20 years, but has only driven on the motorway about ten times in her life because they terrify her.
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2025
Howard Levanthal didn’t redouble his efforts to terrify his students into getting a tetanus shot.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
"Some of these dogs shouldn't be going home… that terrifies me, that they're going to be coming back in. And dogs have gone home that have bitten and come back," he says.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
“You’re walking into a very, very conflictual relationship with the U.S.—and that terrifies me. But I’m not sure if there’s any way around it. Aren’t we actually already there?”
From Slate ● Feb. 13, 2026
“As both a gun owner and an American citizen, this terrifies me.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 26, 2026
So if I see a really big bridge, like the bridge in Long Beach, going over that terrifies me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2025
It speeds my pulse and terrifies me, and I look at the painting of Tariq, and it's such a good likeness that I feel as if I'm really looking at him.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
Don’t miss: I’m terrified my sons will give their inheritance to my ex-husband.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026
When Bum-seok frantically demands a descriptive clarification from a hunkered, terrified colleague who’s seen the thing, the man barks back, “Who cares? That’s not the point!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
"I fled on my own, terrified, on one of my sons' motorcycles. We have nothing left," said the woman in her fifties from the Muthalath al-Udain area of Hodeida province.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
The majority were in favor of striking north, but others were filled with doubt or terrified of losing U.S. support.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
One terrified gerbil clung to the exercise wheel, shaking with fear.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
Emma Lewandowicz says the sheer size and environmental impact of the proposed data centre is "terrifying"
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
Still, Green said after his team’s 3-0 loss, “it was a terrifying moment on a baseball field. Took him a while to come to. It was a really scary collision.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
The eponymous biography of Egil Skallagrímsson, a terrifying and real 10th-century Icelandic warrior-poet, is full of magic, moral ambiguity, carnage and vivid poetry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
The first moment you look inside a newly discovered ancient tomb is at once exciting and terrifying.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
Honestly, rocketing into space with Klawde sounded way less terrifying.
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.
