scary

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

scary^¹

/ˈskɛə.ɹi/ UK
/ˈskɛː.ɹi/ UK
/ˈskɛə.ɹi/ US
/ˈskɛɹ.i/ US
/ˈskeːɹi/ Australia
/ˈskeəɹi/ New Zealand
/ˈskiəɹi/
/ˈskeɹɪ/ Scotland
/ˈskeɹe/ Scotland
/ˈskɜːɹɪ/

Sounds like skerry (only in accents with the Mary-marry-merry merger) · Rhymes with -ɛəɹi

adjective scarier · scariest · scarey

informal Causing fear or anxiety The tiger's jaws were scary.
Similar: frightening, hair-raising, petrifying, terrifying, affreux, alarming, spine-tingling, appalling, awful, eldritch, buggish, butt-clenching
informal Uncannily striking or surprising. Linda changed her hair, and it’s scary how much she looks like her mother.
US, colloquial Subject to sudden alarm; easily frightened. “Whist! whist!” said Natty, in a low voice, on hearing a slight sound made by Elizabeth, in bending over the side of the canoe, in eager curiosity; “’tis a sceary animal, and it’s a far stroke for a spear. […]”
Similar: nervous, jumpy

adverb scarey

informal, not comparable To a scary extent; scarily. At 199 centimetres and a hundred kilos going up, he was scary big and he found work as a bouncer and enforcer[.]

scary^²

Where it comes from

From dialectal English scare (“scraggy”).

noun scarey

Barren land having only a thin coat of grass.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: alarming, shuddery, shivery, chilling, scarey, frightening, terror, worried, scare, terrified, frightened, horror, petrified, terrifying, scared, fearsome

Translations

Every language

adj causing fear or anxiety

Español	temible, espantoso, temeroso
한국어	공포의 gongpoui, 무섭다 museopda
日本語	怖い kowai
中文	恐怖 kǒngbù
हिन्दी	भयानक bhayānak, डरावना ḍarāvnā, भुतहा bhuthā
Kiswahili	inatisha
Português	assustador
Français	sinistre, terrifiant, affreux
Deutsch	schrecklich, furchterregend, beängstigend
Italiano	pauroso
Ελληνικά	τρομακτικός tromaktikós
Română	înfricoșător
Русский	стра́шный strášnyj, ужа́сный užásnyj
Tiếng Việt	đáng sợ
العربية	مُجَفِّل mujaffil
עברית	מפחיד mafkhíd

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"scary." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/scary. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

scary. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/scary

Chicago

"scary." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/scary.

BibTeX

@misc{scary_2026,
  title = {scary},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/scary},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}