Home › Words › S › scaremongeryscaremongeryscaremongery means the act of spreading alarming information that is either exaggerated or untrue in order to scare others.Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, scaremongery ranks #2,165 of 42,747 for Qualifying.EtymologyFrom scaremonger + -y.nounThe act of spreading alarming information that is either exaggerated or untrue in order to scare others.e.g.“The honourable Member's statement is a form of scaremongery.” — 1955, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 3302:Alarming information that is exaggerated or untrue.e.g.“This deliberately alarmist scaremongery has since been repeated on various occasions, notably in Brazil before 1964 and in Chile under Allende.” — 1979, Peter Flynn, Brazil: a political analysis, →ISBN, page 186:Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).Words closest in meaningBy meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.scaremongering 88% match — The actions of scaremongers in spreading frightening or ominous reports or rumours. vs scaremongery →scaremonger 83% match — Someone who spreads worrying rumours or needlessly alarms people. vs scaremongery →fearmongering 81% match — The act of spreading needless fear; exaggerating purported threats in order to incite fear. vs scaremongery →scaremongerer 78% match — A scaremonger; one who scaremongers. vs scaremongery →fearmonger 73% match — Someone who spreads fear. vs scaremongery →panicmongering 72% match — Synonym of scaremongering. vs scaremongery →scandalmongering 64% match — The spreading of salacious gossip. vs scaremongery →scandalmongery 63% match — The act of listening to and telling scandalous rumors. vs scaremongery →