Word.ws English Dictionary

affrightment

affrightment noun: the action of frightening or terrifying; intimidation.

Noun

affrightment (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) The action of frightening or terrifying; intimidation.
  2. (obsolete) A cause of fear.
  3. (archaic) Fright; fear; alarm; the fact or state of being frightened.
    • Passionate words or blows from the tutor, fill the child's mind with terrour and affrightment; which immediately takes it wholly up, and leaves no room for other impressions.1693, [John Locke], “(please specify the section number)”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC
    • I [looked] at him, when I could glance at him, with disgust little short of affrightment.1748, [Samuel Richardson], chapter 7, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume I, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

Origin of affrightment

From affright + -ment.

Questions about affrightment

What does affrightment mean?
Affrightment means the action of frightening or terrifying; intimidation.
What part of speech is affrightment?
Affrightment is a noun.

Words near affrightment in the dictionary

  1. affrighteth
  2. affrightful
  3. affrightfully
  4. affrighting
  5. affrightingly
  6. affrightment
  7. affrights
  8. Affrilachia
  9. Affrilachian
  10. Affrilachians
  11. affront

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: affrightment (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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