Terror

//ˈtɛɹ.ɚ// adj, name, noun, slang

adj, name, noun, slang ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Intense dread, fright, or fear. countable, uncountable

    "The terrors with which I was seized […] were extreme."

  2. 2
    the use of extreme fear in order to coerce people (especially for political reasons) wordnet
  3. 3
    The action or quality of causing dread; terribleness, especially such qualities in narrative fiction. uncountable
  4. 4
    an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety wordnet
  5. 5
    Something or someone that causes such fear. countable

    "The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!"

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    a very troublesome child wordnet
  2. 7
    Terrorism. uncountable

    "a terror attack"

  3. 8
    a person who inspires fear or dread wordnet
  4. 9
    A night terror. countable
Adjective
  1. 1
    A strict teacher who fails most of the students. Philippines, slang

    "I have a terror math teacher."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. usually
  2. 2
    Any specific one of several historical reigns of terror. usually

Synonyms

All synonyms
panicabject fearaffrayaffrightaffrightafraidness

Example

More examples

"One student says the purge is still going on in China and terror is widespread."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tres- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *troséyeti Proto-Italic *trozeō Latin terreō Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *-ōs Proto-Italic *-ōs Latin -or Latin terrorbor. Old French terreur Middle French terreurbor. Middle English terrour English terror From late Middle English terrour, from Old French terreur f (“terror, fear, dread”), from Latin terror m (“fright, fear, terror”), from terrēre (“to frighten, terrify”), from Old Latin tr̥reō, from Proto-Italic *trozeō, from Proto-Indo-European *tre- (“to shake”), *tres- (“to tremble”).

Etymology 2

Proper noun form of terror. Translation of French Terreur, as coined by the Thermidorian Reaction

Related phrases

balance of terrorholy terrornight terrorred terrorreign of terrorsaffron terrorsleep terrorstochastic terrorterror birdterror bombterror bombingterror cell

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