Word.ws English Dictionary

scream queen

UK/ˈskɹiːm kwiːn/US/ˈskɹim kwin/

scream queen noun: an actress particularity acclaimed for horror film roles.

scream queen: an actress particularity acclaimed for horror film roles
Image: The chain of ownership of RKO properties after its demise, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

scream queen (plural scream queens)

  1. (informal) An actress particularity acclaimed for horror film roles.
    • Her [Janet Leigh's] "scream queen" status also led to cameo roles in Jamie Lee Curtis' 1998 horror sequel Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and A Fate Totally Worse than Death in 2000.2004 October 4, “Psycho actress Janet Leigh dies”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 02 Aug 2016
    • What makes a good scream queen? Lloyd Kaufman, whose Troma Films has distributed more than 1,000 horror films since the mid-'70s, says, "It's more than just crying and having ketchup thrown on you. You not only have to be attractive, but you also have to have a big brain. You have to be frightened...2007 April 27, Thomas K. Arnold, “Three screams for these stars”, in USA Today, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2016

scream queen meaning in Persian and Vietnamese

scream queen in Persian

actress who appears in several horror movies
ملکه جیغ maleke jiġ

scream queen in Vietnamese

actress who appears in several horror movies
nữ hoàng la hét

Forms of scream queen

pluralscream queens

Questions about scream queen

What does scream queen mean?
Scream queen means an actress particularity acclaimed for horror film roles.
What is scream queen in Persian?
Scream queen in Persian is ملکه جیغ (maleke jiġ). See Scream queen meaning in Persian.
What part of speech is scream queen?
Scream queen is a noun.
How do you pronounce scream queen?
Scream queen is pronounced /ˈskɹiːm kwiːn/ (UK).
What is the plural of scream queen?
The plural of scream queen is scream queens.

Words near scream queen in the dictionary

  1. scream bloody murder
  2. scream blue murder
  3. scream for
  4. scream loudest
  5. scream one's head off
  6. scream queen
  7. scream queens
  8. screamable
  9. screamathon
  10. screamathons
  11. screamed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scream queen (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-scream queen.ogg.

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