eerie
/ˈɪəɹi/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈɪːɹɪj/
eerie adjective: inspiring fear, especially in a mysterious or shadowy way; strange, weird. Also the alternative spelling of eyrie.
Adjective
eerie (comparative eerier, superlative eeriest)
- Inspiring fear, especially in a mysterious or shadowy way; strange, weird.
- The eerie sounds seemed to come from the graveyard after midnight.
- An eerie feeling came over me.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 200
- Frightened, timid.
- She began to feel eerie.1883, George MacDonald, Donal Grant
- 'It is my business to read the hearts o' men,' said the other. 'And who may ye be?' said Heriotside, growing eerie.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
Noun
eerie (plural eeries)
- An eerie creature or thing.
- Other of these terrible Eeries began now to congregate beneath the canoe, taking courage by the example of their cowardly companion, all alike curious about this charming visitant in the upper world.1880, Charles Martin Newell, Kalani of Oahu: An Historical Romance of Hawaii, page 255
- I tell you it's weirdsville down there, a spaced-out botanical Twilight Zone of creepies, crawlies, eeries, and ghastlies.2013, Robert Silverberg, “A Science-Fiction Garden”, in Reflections and Refractions
Also used as
eerie is also the alternative spelling of eyrie.
eerie meaning in Hindi and Indonesian
eerie in Hindi
- inspiring fear, especially in a mysterious or shadowy way
- भुतहा bhuthā
eerie in Indonesian
- inspiring fear, especially in a mysterious or shadowy way
- bogot
Examples of eerie in a sentence
- Dan was beginning to feel very depressed when suddenly the eerie howl of a dingo rang out[.]1943, H. Lorna Bingham, The Lost Tribe, Sydney: Winn and Co., page 13, column 2:
- I was working in the lab late one night / When my eyes beheld an eerie sight / For my monster, from his slab, began to rise / And suddenly, to my surprise / He did the Mash / He did the Monster Mash.1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:
- The whole city is immersed in a dystopian-looking smog: urban streets in sepia, emptier than usual, bathed in an eerie quiet.2023 June 7, Samira Asma-Sadeque, “‘It’s too much’: New Yorkers don masks or stay inside amid smog crisis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- Since the full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putinism[…] has arrived at what might seem an eerie equilibrium, but on a closer reading is a trap for all involved.2026 June 2, Michael Kimmage, “Putin Has No Good Way Out of His War”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Synonyms of eerie
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- discrepant
- eldritch
- errant
- exceptional
- extraordinary
- fey
- forby
- freak
- freakish
- freaky
- funny
- heteroclite
- hinky
- incongruous
- incongruitous
- irregular
- kooky
- nonstandard
- odd
- outlandish
- out of the ordinary
- outré
- peculiar
- quaint
- queer
- queer as a clockwork orange
- queer as a nine bob note
- queer as a three dollar bill
- queer as a coot
- rare
Forms of eerie
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | eerier |
| superlative | eeriest |
| alternative form | eery |
| Noun | |
| plural | eeries |
Origin of eerie
From Middle English eri (“fearful”), from Old English earg (“cowardly, fearful”), from Proto-West Germanic *arg, from Proto-Germanic *argaz. Akin to Scots ergh, argh from the same Old English source. Doublet of argh.
See eyrie.
Words formed from eerie
Words that rhyme with eerie
Questions about eerie
- What does eerie mean?
- Eerie means inspiring fear, especially in a mysterious or shadowy way; strange, weird.
- What is eerie in Hindi?
- Eerie in Hindi is भुतहा (bhuthā). See Eerie meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use eerie in a sentence?
- Dan was beginning to feel very depressed when suddenly the eerie howl of a dingo rang out[.]
- What part of speech is eerie?
- Eerie can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce eerie?
- Eerie is pronounced /ˈɪəɹi/ (UK).
Words near eerie in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: eerie (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-eerie.ogg, En-us-eerie.ogg.
Cite this entry: “eerie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/eerie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.