Fearsome
adjectiveFrightening or intimidating, likely to inspire fear or awe.
How to spell fearsome
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce fearsome
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does fearsome mean?
- adjectiveFrightening or intimidating, likely to inspire fear or awe.
Fearsome in a sentence
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The old factory dog had a fearsome reputation among delivery drivers.
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The storm built into a fearsome wall of cloud over the harbour.
Where does fearsome come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word combines the noun 'fear' with the productive English suffix '-some'. 'Fear' descends from the Old English noun 'fær', which originally meant a sudden calamity or peril, the unexpected danger that came upon you, rather than the inner emotion of being afraid; that emotional sense developed gradually through the medieval period. The suffix '-some' comes from Old English '-sum', meaning 'characterised by' or 'tending to cause', the same element seen in 'wholesome', 'tiresome', and 'troublesome'. Stitched together, 'fearsome' literally means 'causing fear' or 'apt to inspire dread', and it appears in English from the early 1700s. The spelling trap is the silent 'a' tucked inside 'fear', since the word is pronounced with a single vowel glide that does not announce the 'ea' pairing.
How the word is built
- fear (Old English fær: sudden danger)
- -some (adjective suffix meaning 'tending to' or 'causing')
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