Afraid

//əˈfɹeɪd// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Impressed with fear or apprehension; in fear. predicative

    "He is afraid of death."

  2. 2
    Regretful, sorry; expressing a reluctance to face an unpleasant situation. predicative

    "I am afraid I cannot help you in this matter."

  3. 3
    Worried about, feeling concern for, fearing for (someone or something). predicative
Adjective
  1. 1
    filled with fear or apprehension wordnet
  2. 2
    filled with regret or concern; used often to soften an unpleasant statement wordnet
  3. 3
    feeling worry or concern or insecurity wordnet
  4. 4
    having feelings of aversion or unwillingness wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
afearedfearfulapprehensivefrightenedscaredsorry

Example

More examples

"Every person who is alone is alone because they are afraid of others."

Etymology

From Middle English affrayed, affraied, past participle of afraien (“to affray”), from Anglo-Norman afrayer (“to terrify, disquiet, disturb”), from Old French effreer, esfreer (“to disturb, remove the peace from”), from es- (“out”) + freer (“to secure, secure the peace”), from Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from Proto-Germanic *frijōną (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”). By surface analysis, affray + -ed. Compare also afeard. More at free, friend.

Related phrases

I am afraid of thisI'm afraid notI'm afraid soafraid of one's own shadow

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.