Word.ws English Dictionary

frightmare

frightmare noun: someone or something extremely unattractive.

Noun

frightmare (plural frightmares)

  1. (informal) Someone or something extremely unattractive.
    • Try and stick to only a few decorative elements, not a 'more is more' frightmare.2011, Camilla Morton, A Year in High Heels, →ISBN
    • It's a Dali-esque frightmare of liquescent forms, a pseudo-organic samplescape congested with scrofulous sound tentacles and slithery slimeshapes.2013, Simon Reynolds, Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture, →ISBN
  2. An extremely unpleasant and frightening experience.
    • Yes, that must have been the way it had happened, Gibby decided — just one long frightmare, part of it filmed in this bedroom.1974, Fritz Leiber, The book of Fritz Leiber, page 17
    • Wednesday morning, Jamie was pacing back and forth in the small kitchen when she decided that she didn't want to be alone after last night's frightmare.2011, Fern Michaels, Late Edition, →ISBN, page 223

Forms of frightmare

pluralfrightmares

Origin of frightmare

Blend of fright + nightmare.

Questions about frightmare

What does frightmare mean?
Frightmare means someone or something extremely unattractive.
What part of speech is frightmare?
Frightmare is a noun.
What is the plural of frightmare?
The plural of frightmare is frightmares.

Words near frightmare in the dictionary

  1. frightfulnesses
  2. frighting
  3. frightings
  4. frightless
  5. frightly
  6. frightmare
  7. frightmares
  8. frightment
  9. frights
  10. frightsome
  11. frightsomely

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: frightmare (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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