Panicked

How to spell panicked

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce panicked

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does panicked mean?

1. verbFelt or showed sudden overwhelming fear or anxiety, often leading to rash action.
2. adjectiveShowing or affected by sudden uncontrollable fear.

Panicked in a sentence

• verb

  She panicked when the smoke alarm went off in the middle of the night.

• adjective

  A panicked crowd surged toward the only open exit.

• verb

  He panicked and hit the brakes far too hard on the icy road.

• adjective

  The panicked caller could barely give the address to the operator.

Where does panicked come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word descends from the Greek Panikos, meaning 'relating to Pan', the goat-legged god of woods, flocks, and shepherds. The Greeks believed Pan could fill people and animals with a sudden, contagious dread, especially the unexplained terror that swept through herds or armies in lonely places, so 'panic fear' literally meant the fear inspired by Pan. The notion passed into French as panique and reached English in the 1600s, first as an adjective in phrases like 'panic terror' and later as a standalone noun and verb. The base verb 'panic' added the past-tense ending in the nineteenth century, and here lies the spelling trap: English inserts a 'k' before endings beginning with 'e' or 'i' (panicked, panicking, panicky) so the 'c' is not softened to an 's' sound, the same rule that gives us 'picnicked' and 'trafficked'. Without that silent-guard 'k' the word would wrongly read as 'paniced'.

How the word is built

• panic (from Greek Panikos: of the god Pan)
• -k- (inserted to keep the hard /k/ sound)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)