Word.ws English Dictionary

panic

Syllables: pan·ic/ˈpænɪk//ˈpeə̯nɪk/

panic adjective: of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden. Also the alternative letter-case form of Panic.

Adjective (1)

panic (comparative more panic, superlative most panic)

  1. (by extension (see the etymology)) Of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden.
    • All things were there in a diſordered confuſion, and in a confuſed furie, vntill ſuch time as by prayers and ſacrifices they had appeaſed the wrath of their Gods. They call it to this day, the P[a]nike terror.1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Feare”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 28
    • So long as Epaminondas was captaine general of the Thebans, there was never ſeene in his campe any of theſe ſudden fooliſh frights, without any certeine cauſe, which they call Panique Terrores.1603, Plutarch, “The Apophthegmes or Notable Sayings of Kings, Princes and Great Captains”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold...
    Synonyms:
    panical
  2. (by extension (see the etymology)) Pertaining to or resulting from overwhelming fear or fright.
    • [H]e perceived how that many women followed his ſouldiers, ſome being their wives, and ſome wanting nothing to make them ſo but marriage, […] The King coming to a great river, after his men and the wagons were paſſed over, cauſed the bridge to be broken down, hoping ſo to be rid of theſe feminine...1642, Thomas Fuller, “The Life of Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden”, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC, book IV, paragraph 5, page 332
    • No Dangers threatned, but they ſmil'd to meet
      The pannick French-men trembling at their Feet.1705, [Daniel Defoe], The D[utch] Deputies. A Satyr, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 5

Noun (1)

panic (countable and uncountable, plural panics)

  1. (uncountable) Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare.
    • She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter II...
    • There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control.1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 7, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 125
  2. (countable) A rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of such prices continuing to decline.
    • "I thought you inherited your money."
      "I did, old sport," he said automatically, "but I lost most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war."1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 5, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 91
    • "There is sort of a panic going on, and that is not what ought to be," [Chris] Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, said at a press conference in Washington today. "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were never bottom feeders in the residential mortgage market."2008 July 11, Romaine Bostick, “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac are Sound; Panic Unwarranted, Dodd Says”, in Bloomberg News
  3. (US, colloquial, countable) A highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show; a riot, a scream.

Verb

panic (third-person singular simple present panics, present participle panicking, simple past and past participle panicked)

  1. (transitive) To cause (someone) to feel panic (“overwhelming fear or fright”); also, to frighten (someone) into acting hastily.
    • He told us he'd almost stepped on Ellen's body that night—dead and stiffening. Then I'd come round the corner and hailed him, and that panicked him.1927 October, Rudyard Kipling, “Fairy-Kist”, in Limits and Renewals, Dominions edition, London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1932, →OCLC, page 169
  2. (transitive) To cause (a computer system) to crash.
    • If your new driver has an error that panics the system when you load the driver, then the system will panic again when it tries to reboot after the panic. The system will continue the cycle of panic, reboot, and panic as it attempts to reload the faulty driver every time it reboots after panic.2010, Solaris system engineers, “Managing Devices”, in Solaris 10 System Administration Essentials (Solaris System Administration Series), Santa Clara, Calif.: Sun Microsystems Press, →ISBN, section...
  3. (US, colloquial, transitive) To highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show).
  4. (intransitive) To feel panic, or overwhelming fear or fright; to freak out, to lose one's head.
    • I don't want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day and then I want you to act.2019 January 25, 5:22 from the start, in Our House is on Fire, spoken by Greta Thunberg, Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland: World Economic Forum
  5. (intransitive) Of a computer system: to crash.

Noun (2)

panic (countable and uncountable, plural panics)

  1. (originally) Foxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica), the second-most widely grown species of millet.
  2. (broadly) A plant of the genus Panicum, or of similar plants of other genera (especially Echinochloa and Setaria) formerly included within Panicum; panicgrass or panic grass.
    • [folio 76, recto] Panicum […] hathe no name in Engliſh yet⸝ but it may well be called panick after yͤ Latin. Panik hath leues lyke vnto a rede when it commeth firſt furth. […] [folio 76, verso] Dioſcorides writeth yͭ Panic hathe the ſame vertue yͭ Milleth hathe⸝ but that it noriſheth & byndeth...1562, Wylliam Turner [i.e., William Turner], “Of Panick”, in The Second Parte of Guilliam Turners Herball⸝ […], Cologne: […] Arnold Birckman, →OCLC, folios 76, recto – 76, verso
    • There be ſundrie ſorts of Panick, although of the ancients there hathe beene ſet downe but two, that is to ſay, the wilde or fielde Panick, and the garden or manured Panick: […]1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Panick”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, →OCLC, book I, page 78
  3. The edible grain obtained from one of the above plants.
    • Pannick ſtoppeth the laske as Millet doth, being boiled (as Plinie reporteth) in Goates milk and drunke twiſe in a day. Bread made of Pannick nouriſheth little, and is cold and dry, verie brittle, hauing in it neither clammineſſe, nor fatneſſe; and therefore it drieth a moiſt belly.1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Panick”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, →OCLC, book I, page 79

Adjective (2) capitalized: Panic

Panic (comparative more Panic, superlative most Panic)

  1. (Greek, archaic) Synonym of Pandean (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”).
    Synonyms:
    Pandean

Also used as

panic is also the alternative letter-case form of Panic.

panic is also the ellipsis of kernel panic.

panic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

panic in Hindi

overwhelming fear or fright; an instance of this
संत्रास santrās, आतंक ātaṅk, खलबली khalbalī, पैनिक painik, घबराहट ghabrāhaṭ

panic in Tamil

பீதி, பீதியடைவது

panic in Marathi

घबराट

panic in Urdu

overwhelming fear or fright; an instance of this
کَھلْبَلی khalbalī, گَھبْراہَٹ ghabrāhaṭ
More languagesFewer languages
panic in Telugu
భయాందోళన, భయాందోళనలు
panic in Malayalam
പരിഭ്രാന്തി, പരിഭ്രാന്ത്
panic in Kannada
ಗಾಬರಿ
panic in Punjabi
ਘਬਰਾਹਟ, ਘਬਰਾਉਣਾ
panic in Gujarati
ગભરાટ, ગભરાઈ જવું
panic in Arabic
ذُعْر ḏuʕr, رُعْب ruʕb, هَلَع halaʕ, خَوْف ḵawf
panic in Indonesian
kepanikan
panic in Persian
رُعْب ruʕb, خَوْف ḵawf, بیم bim, تَرس tars
panic in Thai
ความตื่นกลัว
panic in Vietnamese
hốt hoảng

Examples of panic in a sentence

  • But why dwell I ſo intolerable long about Tolerations, I hope my feares are but panick, againſt which I have a double cordiall.1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert]...
  • At that moment a flight of birds passed close overhead, and at the whirr of their wings a panic fear seized her.1978, Lawrence Durrell, “Lord Galen’s Farewell”, in Livia: Or Buried Alive […] (The Avignon Quintet; 2), London; Boston, Mass.: Faber and...
  • Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost.1963, Margery Allingham, “Meeting Point”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 232:
  • 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, New York, N.Y.: Soho Press, →ISBN, page 33:

All 40 example sentences with panic

Synonyms of panic

Forms of panic

Adjective
comparativemore panic
superlativemost panic
comparativemore Panic
superlativemost Panic
alternative formpanic
alternative form (obsolete)panick
Noun
pluralpanics
Verb
third-person singular presentpanics
present participlepanicking
past participlepanicked
pastpanicked

Past tense of panic: panicked

Plural of panic: panics

Origin of panic

The adjective is borrowed from Middle French panique, a word itself borrowed from Ancient Greek πανικός (panikós, “pertaining to Pan”); Pan, the Greek god of fields and woods, was believed to be the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots. Adjective sense 3 (“pertaining to or resulting from overpowering fear or fright”) is partly an attributive use of the noun. The noun is derived from the adjective, while the verb is derived from the noun. Verb sense 1.3 (“to highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show”) is derived from noun sense 4 (“a highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show”).

From Late Middle English panik, panyk (“plant of the genus Panicum”), borrowed from Latin pānicum, pānīcum (“foxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica); plant of the genus Panicum, panicgrass”); further etymology uncertain, probably either from pānis (“bread; loaf”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to graze; to protect; to shepherd”)) or pānus (“ear of millet; thread wound on a bobbin”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁- (“to twist; to weave”)) + -cum (suffix forming neuter nouns). Doublet of bannock and bonnag

From Pan + -ic.

Words formed from panic

Phrases with panic

10 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with panic

38 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about panic

What does panic mean?
Panic means of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden.
What is panic in Hindi?
Panic in Hindi is संत्रास (santrās), आतंक (ātaṅk), खलबली (khalbalī). See Panic meaning in Hindi.
How do you use panic in a sentence?
But why dwell I ſo intolerable long about Tolerations, I hope my feares are but panick, againſt which I have a double cordiall.
What part of speech is panic?
Panic can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce panic?
Panic is pronounced /ˈpænɪk/.

Words near panic in the dictionary

  1. PANI
  2. Pania
  3. Paniagua
  4. Paniaguas
  5. Panibasan
  6. panic
  7. panic attack
  8. panic attacks
  9. panic bar
  10. panic bars
  11. panic button

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: panic (page history and authors); Panic (page history and authors); panic (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); panic (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); panic (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); panic (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); panic (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); panic (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); panic (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-us-panic.ogg.

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