scream
UK/skɹiːm/
scream noun: a loud, emphatic, exclamation of extreme emotion, especially horror, fear, excitement, or anger; it may comprise a word or a sustained, high-pitched vowel sound.
Noun
scream (plural screams)
- A loud, emphatic, exclamation of extreme emotion, especially horror, fear, excitement, or anger; it may comprise a word or a sustained, high-pitched vowel sound.
- A loud vocalisation of many animals, especially in response to pain or fear.
- I am tender-hearted by nature, and have found my eyes moist many a time over the scream of a wounded hare.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
- A form of singing associated with the metal and screamo styles of music. It is a loud, rough, distorted version of the voice; rather than the normal voice of the singer.
- Used as an intensifier.
- We had a real scream of a time at the beach.
- Amman, though not exactly your world cultural centre, is a scream of a city; all the roads have different names from their official ones, so that maps are useless1994 June 28, “Kingdom of the faithful: Serena Mackesy visits Jordan”, in Independent
- An exclamation mark.
Verb
scream (third-person singular simple present screams, present participle screaming, simple past and past participle screamed or (nonstandard) screamt)
- To cry out with a shrill voice; to utter a sudden, sharp outcry, or shrill, loud cry, as in fright or extreme pain; to screech, to shriek.
- I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- When we crossed the river, I heard a terrible cry, and I blessed the child again, the others said it was only the loon, which screamed for bad weather." "Yes, that would have been sufficient, if there was nothing else but the loon," said Gubjor; "when it screams at a new-born babe, that child is...1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 303
- To move quickly; to race.
- He almost hit a pole, the way he came screaming down the hill.
- Things had improved a little bit compared to the Eastern Solomons, and three dozen F4F Wildcats on combat air patrol were vectored onto the oncoming hostiles, but once that initial task was accomplished, things began to collapse back into the cacophony and chaos that was all too familiar to those...2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 11:05 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04 Dec 2022
- To be very indicative of; clearly having the characteristics of.
- Do you know what screams "I’m obnoxious"? People who feel the need to comment on every little thing they notice.
- Nothing screams fall like corduroy! I'm loving this deep seafoam green shacket—made of the thick, ribbed material—that'll give a fab pop of color to a muted ensemble.2023 November 4, Kim Duong, Megan Uy, Tarah-Lynn Saint-Elien, “22 Best Shackets to Get You Through the Chilly Fall Weather”, in Cosmopolitan
scream meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
scream in Hindi
- scream
- चीख़ cīx
- to scream, shout, shriek, screech; trumpet
- चिंघाड़ना ciṅghāṛnā
scream in Tamil
- to make the sound of a scream
- கத்து kattu
scream in Marathi
- to scream
- किंचाळणे kiñcāḷṇe
scream in Urdu
- loud exclamation
- چیخ cīx
More languagesFewer languages
- scream in Bengali
- চিল্লানি cillani
- scream in Telugu
- ఘీంకరించు ghīṅkariñcu
- scream in Malayalam
- അലർച്ച alaṟcca, അലറുക alaṟuka
- scream in Kannada
- ಸೀಳು, ಅರಚಾಟ, ಚೀರಾಟ, ಚೀತ್ಕಾರ
- scream in Punjabi
- ਚੀਕਣਾ, ਚੀਕੋ, ਚੀਕਦੇ ਹਨ
- scream in Gujarati
- ચીસ cīs, ચીસ પાડવી cīs pāḍvī
- scream in Odia
- ଚିତ୍କାର
- scream in Assamese
- চিঞৰা sio͂ra
- scream in Nepali
- चिच्याउनुहोस्, चिच्याउँ, चित्कार गर्नुहोस्
- scream in Tagalog
- umiyák
- scream in Arabic
- صرخة ṣarkha, صَرَخَ ṣaraḵa
- scream in Malay
- jeritan, jerit
- scream in Persian
- جیغ jiġ
Examples of scream in a sentence
- She turned pale and screamed on seeing the spider in the toilet.
- We have to get the report done. If the boss doesn't get his bimonthly he'll scream.
- “Now to plunder, mateys!” screamed a buccaneer, to cries of “Arrgh!” and “Aye!” all around.
Synonyms of scream
25 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of scream
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | screams |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | screams |
| present participle | screaming |
| past participle | screamed |
| past | screamed |
| past participle (nonstandard) | screamt |
| past (nonstandard) | screamt |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | screamest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | screamedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | screameth |
Origin of scream
Inherited from Middle English scremen, borrowed from or cognate with Middle Dutch scremen (“to yell; shout”) and Old Norse skræma (“to terrify; scare”); compare West Flemish schreemen, Zealandic schreême (“to shout; yell; cry”), Swedish skrämma (“to spook; frighten”), Danish skræmme (“to scare”), West Frisian skrieme (“to weep”). Compare also Swedish skräna (“to yell; shout; howl”), Dutch schreien (“to cry; weep”), German schreien (“to scream”). Related to shriek, skrike.
Words formed from scream
- Howie scream
- primal scream
- screamo
- scream queen
- Wilhelm scream
- kicking and screaming
- scream bloody murder
- scream blue murder
- scream for
- screaming abdabs
- screaming hairy armadillo
- screaming jelly babies
- screaming meemie
- screaming orgasm
- screaming sixties
- screaming snake case
- scream loudest
- scream one's head off
Phrases with scream
Words that rhyme with scream
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- upstream
- deem
- dream
- team
- academe
- bream
- downstream
- esteem
- forebeam
- supreme
- teem
- A team
- ice cream
- under one's own steam
- abeam
- addeem
- astream
- beseem
- centime
- decime
- deme
- fleam
- inseam
- Karim
- preem
- rheme
- seem
- agleam
- breme
- buffer beam
- distream
- foredream
- haem
- heme
- Kareem
- kilim
- leam
- leme
- let off steam
- meem
- misesteem
- misseem
- neem
- on stream
- prime
- redream
- reem
- reim
Questions about scream
- What does scream mean?
- Scream means a loud, emphatic, exclamation of extreme emotion, especially horror, fear, excitement, or anger; it may comprise a word or a sustained, high-pitched vowel sound.
- What is scream in Hindi?
- Scream in Hindi is चीख़ (cīx), चिंघाड़ना (ciṅghāṛnā). See Scream meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is scream?
- Scream can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce scream?
- Scream is pronounced /skɹiːm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of scream?
- The plural of scream is screams.
Words near scream in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scream (page history and authors); चिंघाड़ना (Hindi) (page history and authors); किंचाळणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); ఘీంకరించు (Telugu) (page history and authors); scream (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scream (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scream (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scream (Nepali, 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scream.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scream.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scream. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.