Word.ws English Dictionary

fright

/fɹaɪt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Canada/fɹʌit/

fright noun: a state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm.

Noun

fright (countable and uncountable, plural frights)

  1. A state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm.
    • With a bolt of fright he remembered that there was no bathroom in the Hobhouse Room. He leapt along the corridor in a panic, stopping by the long-case clock at the end where he flattened himself against the wall.1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus
  2. Someone strange, ugly or shocking, producing a feeling of alarm or aversion.
    • Her maids were old, and if she took a new one,
      You might be sure she was a perfect fright;
      She did this during even her husband's life
      I recommend as much to every wife.1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, (please specify the stanza number)

Verb

fright (third-person singular simple present frights, present participle frighting, simple past and past participle frighted)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To frighten.
    • Are not you he […] That frights the maidens of the villagery […] ?c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
    • Little Miss Muffet, She sat on a tuffet, Eating of curds and whey; There came a little spider, Who sat down beside her, And frighted Miss Muffet away.1805, Songs for the Nursery, page 23

Adjective

fright (comparative more fright, superlative most fright)

  1. (rare) frightened; afraid; affright
    • Don't be fright, it is not so impossible as it seems.1946, Sydney Sïrdani, Don't be Fright: Radio Magic, page 10
    • Don't be fright, I'm not going to hurt you.2003, Ben Hodges, Forbidden Acts

fright meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

fright in Hindi

fright, terror, dread
हौल haul
fright, terror
आखेट ākheṭ

fright in Tamil

அச்சம், பயம், வெரு, திகில்

fright in Urdu

fright, terror
آکھیٹ ākheṭ

fright in Bengali

আতঙ্ক, হঠাৎ ভয় পাওয়া, ত্রাস
More languagesFewer languages
fright in Telugu
బెదురు beduru
fright in Malayalam
പേടി, ഭ്രയവിഹ്വലത, ഭീതി, വിഭീതി
fright in Kannada
ಭಯ, ಭೀತಿ, ದಿಗಿಲು, ಹೆದರಿಕೆ
fright in Punjabi
تراہ trāh
fright in Sanskrit
अम ama
fright in Arabic
رُعْب ruʕb, ذُعْر ḏuʕr, خَوْف ḵawf
fright in Malay
ketakutan

Examples of fright in a sentence

  • I got stage fright while doing a dance show for my school last year.
  • What a fright you looked in that hideous outfit.
  • My sudden fright was an unconscious response.

All 39 example sentences with fright

Forms of fright

Noun
pluralfrights
Verb
third-person singular presentfrights
present participlefrighting
past participlefrighted
pastfrighted
Adjective
comparativemore fright
superlativemost fright

Plural of fright: frights

Origin of fright

From Middle English fright, furht, from Old English fryhtu, fyrhto (“fright, fear, dread, trembling, horrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *furhtį̄ (“fear”), from Proto-Indo-European *pr̥k- (“to fear”). Cognate with Scots fricht (“fright”), Old Frisian fruchte (“fright”), Low German frucht (“fright”), Middle Dutch vrucht, German Furcht (“fear, fright”), Danish frygt (“fear”), Swedish fruktan (“fear, fright, dread”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌷𐍄𐌴𐌹 (faurhtei, “fear, horror, fright”). Compare possibly Albanian frikë (“fear, fright, dread, danger”).

Probably short for affright, from Middle English afright, from Old English āfyrht, past participle of āfyrhtan (“to make afraid; terrify”).

Words formed from fright

Phrases with fright

Words that rhyme with fright

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about fright

What does fright mean?
Fright means a state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm.
What is fright in Hindi?
Fright in Hindi is हौल (haul), आखेट (ākheṭ). See Fright meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is fright?
Fright can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce fright?
Fright is pronounced /fɹaɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of fright?
The plural of fright is frights.

Words near fright in the dictionary

  1. friggle
  2. friggled
  3. friggles
  4. friggling
  5. friggs up
  6. fright
  7. fright disease
  8. fright wig
  9. fright wigs
  10. fright-wig
  11. fright-wigs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fright (page history and authors); आखेट (Hindi) (page history and authors); fright (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); آکھیٹ (Urdu) (page history and authors); fright (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); బెదురు (Telugu) (page history and authors); fright (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); fright (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); تراہ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); अम (Sanskrit) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-ca-fright.ogg, En-us-fright.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-fright.wav.

Cite this entry: “fright.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fright. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.