Fear

How to spell fear

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fear

What does fear mean?

1. nounAn unpleasant feeling caused by the belief that something dangerous or painful is likely to happen.
2. verbTo be afraid of something or to be anxious that something bad will happen.

Fear in a sentence

• noun

  A sudden fear of heights kept her off the ladder.

• verb

  Many investors fear another sharp drop in the market.

• noun

  His fear of failing the exam kept him awake all night.

• verb

  She did not fear the long drive through the mountains.

Where does fear come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English noun fǣr, which originally meant 'sudden calamity' or 'danger' rather than the inner emotion we now associate with it. It belongs to a wider Germanic family, with relatives such as the Old High German fāra, meaning 'ambush' or 'peril', and the modern German Gefahr, meaning 'danger'. Over the medieval period the meaning shifted inward, from the external threat itself to the feeling of dread that such a threat produces. By the time of Middle English the emotional sense had become dominant, and the verb 'to fear' grew naturally alongside the noun. The spelling is mercifully phonetic, with the 'ea' simply carrying the long vowel sound that English so often spells that way.

How the word is built

• fear (whole word, from Old English fǣr: sudden danger)