Ferocious

How to spell ferocious

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ferocious

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ferocious mean?

1. adjectiveSavagely fierce, violent, or intense in nature or force.

Ferocious in a sentence

• The ferocious storm tore branches from every tree on the street.

• The dog gave a ferocious growl when strangers approached the gate.

Where does ferocious come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin adjective ferox, whose stem is feroc-, meaning 'fierce', 'savage', or 'wild-spirited'. Ferox itself was built on ferus, meaning 'wild' or 'untamed' (the same root that gives us 'feral'), combined with an element related to appearance and bearing, so the literal sense was something like 'wild-looking' or 'fierce in aspect'. English took the word over in the early 1600s, fitting the Latin stem with the familiar -ious ending used to form adjectives meaning 'full of'. The modern meaning, savagely violent or intensely strong, has stayed remarkably close to the original Latin sense. The spelling trap lives in that ending: the soft 'sh' sound is written with the letters -cious, exactly as in 'delicious' and 'gracious', not with -tious or -shus.

How the word is built

• feroc- (from Latin ferox: fierce, wild)
• -ious (adjective suffix meaning 'full of')