Freak

How to spell freak

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce freak

What does freak mean?

1. nounA very unusual or unexpected event, condition, or thing that deviates sharply from the norm.
2. nounA person with an extreme or obsessive enthusiasm for a particular activity or interest.
3. adjectiveHighly unusual and unexpected; happening as a rare deviation from the norm.
4. verbTo react with sudden extreme emotion such as panic, shock, or excitement.

Freak in a sentence

• noun

  The early snowfall in May was a complete freak of the weather.

• noun

  As a fitness freak, she trains in the gym every single morning.

• adjective

  A freak storm flooded the basement within an hour.

• verb

  Try not to freak when you see the size of the repair bill.

• noun

  Losing power on a sunny day was a freak that nobody could explain.

• noun

  My brother is a control freak who plans every detail of the trip.

Where does freak come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The origins of 'freak' are genuinely murky, and most scholars flag it as uncertain. It surfaced in English in the 1560s with the sense of a sudden capricious turn of mind, a whim or fancy, which is why early writers spoke of a 'freak' of fortune or humour. Many dictionaries connect it tentatively to the Old English verb 'frician', meaning 'to dance', and to the Middle English adjective 'frek', meaning 'bold' or 'eager', both suggesting lively, unpredictable movement. From the idea of a whimsical, unexpected event the word drifted in the early 1800s toward 'an abnormal or freakish thing', and by the late nineteenth century to a person of strange appearance exhibited in shows. The casual modern verb meaning 'to lose emotional control', as in to 'freak out', is twentieth century American slang. Because the spelling is short and phonetic, the only thing to remember is the 'ea' vowel team, the same pattern seen in 'break' relatives and in 'streak'.

How the word is built

• freak (single Modern English root; no prefix or suffix)