adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of petrify form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1. 1
   Causing immense fear; extremely scary

   "The idea of speaking in front of such a large audience was petrifying."

Adjective

1. 1
   paralyzing with terror wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

alarmingbloodcurdlingformidablefrighteninghair-raisinghardening

Example

More examples

"Sami had a petrifying experience."

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