Word.ws English Dictionary

petrific

/pəˈtɹɪf.ɪk/

petrific adjective: petrifying, turning into stone; petrifactive.

Adjective

petrific (comparative more petrific, superlative most petrific)

  1. (archaic) Petrifying, turning into stone; petrifactive.
    • Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry.1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
    • “Sir!” cried Mr. Delvile, with a look meant to be nothing less than petrific.1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, III.vi.2

Forms of petrific

comparativemore petrific
superlativemost petrific

Origin of petrific

From post-classical Latin petrificus (13th c.), from petra (“rock, stone”).

Words that rhyme with petrific

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about petrific

What does petrific mean?
Petrific means petrifying, turning into stone; petrifactive.
What part of speech is petrific?
Petrific is an adjective.
How do you pronounce petrific?
Petrific is pronounced /pəˈtɹɪf.ɪk/.

Words near petrific in the dictionary

  1. petrifaction
  2. petrifactions
  3. petrifactive
  4. petrifacts
  5. petrifiable
  6. petrific
  7. petrificant
  8. petrificated
  9. petrification
  10. petrifications
  11. petrificious

Source and license

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