Word.ws English Dictionary

petrified

petrified adjective: having undergone the process of petrification (transformation into a stony substance); turned to stone. Also the simple past and past participle of petrify.

Adjective

petrified (comparative more petrified, superlative most petrified)

  1. Having undergone the process of petrification (transformation into a stony substance); turned to stone.
    • On Yule-eve alone can petrified Giants receive back their life for the space of seven hours, if one of their race embraces them, and is, at the same time, willing to sacrifice a hundred years of their own life.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 218
    • Entering Avebury from any direction is like stepping back into the past. Before the centre of the village is reached, the road passes through an immense circle of brooding stones which stand like petrified ghosts of an age about which little is known.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 40
  2. Extremely afraid.
    Synonyms:
    afraid

Also used as

petrified is also the simple past and past participle of petrify.

Examples of petrified in a sentence

  • Petrified wood is a silicic pseudomorph of the original wood.
  • A useful product called greensand (glauconite) is mined from petrified seaweed deposits.
  • My pen knows not how to flow, and easily becomes petrified.

All 12 example sentences with petrified

Synonyms of petrified

Forms of petrified

comparativemore petrified
superlativemost petrified

Words formed from petrified

Questions about petrified

What does petrified mean?
Petrified means having undergone the process of petrification (transformation into a stony substance); turned to stone.
What part of speech is petrified?
Petrified is an adjective.

Words near petrified in the dictionary

  1. petrificant
  2. petrificated
  3. petrification
  4. petrifications
  5. petrificious
  6. petrified
  7. petrified carpentry
  8. petrifier
  9. petrifiers
  10. petrifies
  11. petrify

Source and license

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