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terror.

Intense dread, fright, or fear.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɛɹɚ/General-American/tɛɚ//ˈtɛɹə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈteɹə/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. Intense dread, fright, or fear.

    countable · uncountable

  2. The action or quality of causing dread; terribleness, especially such qualities in narrative fiction.

    uncountable

  3. Something or someone that causes such fear.

    countable

  4. Terrorism.

    uncountable
    a terror attack
    the War on Terror

  5. A night terror.

    countable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tres- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *troséyeti Proto-Italic *trozeō Latin terreō Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *-ōs Proto-Italic *-ōs Latin -or Latin terrorbor. Old French terreur Middle French terreurbor. Middle English terrour English terror From late Middle English terrour, from Old French terreur f (“terror, fear, dread”), from Latin terror (“fright, fear, terror”), from terrēre (“to frighten, terrify”), from Old Latin tr̥reō, from Proto-Italic *trozeō, from Proto-Indo-European *tre- (“to shake”), *tres- (“to tremble”).

adj/ˈtɛɹɚ/General-American/tɛɚ//ˈtɛɹə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈteɹə/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. A strict teacher who fails most of the students.

    Philippines · slang
    I have a terror math teacher.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tres- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *troséyeti Proto-Italic *trozeō Latin terreō Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *-ōs Proto-Italic *-ōs Latin -or Latin terrorbor. Old French terreur Middle French terreurbor. Middle English terrour English terror From late Middle English terrour, from Old French terreur f (“terror, fear, dread”), from Latin terror (“fright, fear, terror”), from terrēre (“to frighten, terrify”), from Old Latin tr̥reō, from Proto-Italic *trozeō, from Proto-Indo-European *tre- (“to shake”), *tres- (“to tremble”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.