Scary Meaning
/ˈskɛə.ɹi/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjCausing fear or anxiety
adjUncannily striking or surprising.
Sentence Examples
When everybody's crossing on a red, it's not so scary.
It's scary how little consideration she gives to being a woman.
It was a really scary moment.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The dark, abandoned house at night looked very ____ with creaking sounds.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The haunted house was so ____ that several children refused to go inside.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree English scare Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English scary From scare + -y.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst the leaves."
— 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 29, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:
"“[…] How scary it is to know that everyone I love depends on me! I’m afraid I’ll do something wrong.”"
— 1982, Anne Tyler, chapter 2, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, New York: Ivy Books, published 1992, page 70:
"Age notwithstanding, none of these men seem interested in sailing to Byzantium anyway: Justine’s got them all on the last stage to someplace wilder and scarier, where Yeats’s “monuments of unaging intellect” are thoroughly beside the point."
— 2007 February 9, Terrence Rafferty, “Technicolor Dreamboat”, in The New York Times:
"The biggest, scariest, scarriest man in the room said, “It's about time, Jones.”"
— 2020, Lesley L. Smith, A Jack For All Seasons, page 45:
"“Whist! whist!” said Natty, in a low voice, on hearing a slight sound made by Elizabeth, in bending over the side of the canoe, in eager curiosity; “’tis a sceary animal, and it’s a far stroke for a spear. […]”"
— 1823, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 5, in The Pioneers, volume 2, New York: Charles Wiley, the UK edition of the same year has scary (p. 262), page 77:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The dark, abandoned house at night looked very ____ with creaking sounds.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The haunted house was so ____ that several children refused to go inside.