Terrifying

How to spell terrifying

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce terrifying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does terrifying mean?

1. adjectiveCausing intense fear, dread, or alarm.

Terrifying in a sentence

• The terrifying noise from the engine forced the pilot to turn back.

• She found the long drive down the icy mountain road utterly terrifying.

Where does terrifying come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb terrere, which meant 'to frighten' or 'to fill with dread'. From it the Romans built terrificare, literally 'to make frightful', combining that root with facere, meaning 'to make' or 'to do'. English took this in through French and Latin in the seventeenth century as the verb 'terrify', and 'terrifying' is simply its present participle pressed into service as an adjective. The same terrere root sits inside a whole family of fear words, including 'terror', 'terrible', 'terrific' (which once meant frightful before it drifted to mean wonderful), and 'deter'. The spelling trap is the double r near the start, inherited straight from the Latin, paired with the soft single f of the -ify ending.

How the word is built

• terr- (from Latin terrere: to frighten)
• -ify (to make)
• -ing (present participle/adjective suffix)