terrify means to frighten greatly; to fill with terror. It carries an Arena rating of 1610, earned across 11 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, terrify ranks #1,004 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,031 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #5,113 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #5,769 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
terrify is pronounced /ˈtɛɹɪfaɪ/.
Why “terrify” is a great word
To fill with extreme, often paralyzing fear. From Middle French *terrifier*, from Latin *terrificare* ("to frighten, make afraid"), from *terrificus* ("causing terror"), from *terror* ("fright, terror") + *-ficus* ("making"). First attested in English in the 1570s. Unlike "startle," which suggests a sudden, brief shock, or "intimidate," which implies a tactical threat to control behavior, to terrify is to induce a profound, consuming dread. It is the absolute silence that follows a floorboard’s creak in an empty house, the gut-deep certainty of a predator’s gaze in the dark, and the slow-motion horror of a car sliding toward a precipice—a primal acknowledgment that the world contains forces utterly indifferent to your continued existence.
Etymology
From Middle French terrifier, from Latin terrificare.
verb
- To frighten greatly; to fill with terror.
- To menace or intimidate.
- To make terrible.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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