Screaming

How to spell screaming

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce screaming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does screaming mean?

1. verbCrying out in a loud, high-pitched voice, usually from fear, pain, or excitement.
2. adjectiveSo bright, loud, or obvious that it instantly demands attention.

Screaming in a sentence

• verb

  The toddler was screaming in the supermarket aisle.

• adjective

  The advert used a screaming shade of orange to grab shoppers.

• verb

  Fans were screaming as the band walked on stage.

• adjective

  The tabloid ran a screaming front-page headline about the scandal.

Where does screaming come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Screaming is the present participle of the verb scream, whose ultimate origin is murky but clearly Germanic. It probably descends from a Middle English form such as scremen or scræmen, and it is closely tied to Old Norse skraema, meaning 'to terrify' or 'to scare', as well as to related Dutch and Low German words for shrieking. The core idea throughout was a sharp, piercing cry forced out under fear or pain, and the very sound of the word (sometimes called echoic or imitative) mimics that shrill noise. By later Middle English the verb settled into its modern sense of crying out in a loud, high-pitched voice, and the -ing form did double duty as both a participle and a vivid adjective. From the nineteenth century onward writers stretched the adjective sense figuratively, so a 'screaming' colour or 'screaming' headline simply means one so loud and conspicuous that it almost shouts at you. The spelling is regular once you remember it is plain scream plus -ing, with the silent stretch 'ea' carrying the long vowel.

How the word is built

• scream (to cry out loudly)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)