- present participle of terrify.
terrifying
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
If something is terrifying, it makes you feel extremely afraid. Even if your little sister loves the scary roller coaster at the amusement park, you might still find it terrifying. Some people feel mildly alarmed when they see a small spider — if you have a phobia about spiders, discovering one in your bathtub is truly terrifying. This alarming adjective comes from the Latin root terrificus ("causing terror"), which it shares with terrific, a word whose meaning was originally just as scary.
Vocabulary lists containing terrifying
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.
"Everything came crashing down. It was terrifying," Cristina Ruiz Lopez, a lab worker who was at a supermarket in Granada when the earthquake hit, wrote on X.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
She says it is terrifying how often these attacks are happening to women, but is deeply sceptical of what the anti-immigration groups say motivates them to take to the streets.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
“It’s actually impostor syndrome to the max and really terrifying, but I know what this film is. I’ve watched it 100 times in my head.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
This one is new, surprising, secretly brilliant—and completely terrifying.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
For a girl of her age to risk all for freedom must have been terrifying.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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.
