FEARFULNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fearfulness mean? 

• FEARFULNESS (noun)
  The noun FEARFULNESS has 2 senses:

1. an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight)

2. the trait of being afraid

  Familiarity information: FEARFULNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FEARFULNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

fear; fearfulness; fright

Hypernyms ("fearfulness" is a kind of...):

emotion (any strong feeling)

Meronyms (parts of "fearfulness"):

cold sweat (the physical condition of concurrent perspiration and chill; associated with fear)

Attribute:

afraid (filled with fear or apprehension)

fearless; unafraid (oblivious of dangers or perils or calmly resolute in facing them)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fearfulness"):

alarm; consternation; dismay (fear resulting from the awareness of danger)

creeps (a feeling of fear and revulsion)

chill; frisson; quiver; shiver; shudder; thrill; tingle (an almost pleasurable sensation of fright)

horror (intense and profound fear)

hysteria (excessive or uncontrollable fear)

affright; panic; terror (an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety)

panic attack; scare (a sudden attack of fear)

stage fright (fear that affects a person about to face an audience)

apprehension; apprehensiveness; dread (fearful expectation or anticipation)

timidity; timidness; timorousness (fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions)

intimidation (the feeling of being intimidated; being made to feel afraid or timid)

Derivation:

fearful (experiencing or showing fear)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The trait of being afraid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("fearfulness" is a kind of...):

cowardice; cowardliness (the trait of lacking courage)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fearfulness"):

timidity; timorousness (fearfulness in venturing into new and unknown places or activities)

pusillanimity; pusillanimousness (contemptible fearfulness)

gutlessness (the trait of lacking courage and determination; fearful of loss or injury)

Antonym:

fearlessness (the trait of feeling no fear)

Derivation:

fearful (lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted)

 Context examples 

I was frequently rallied by the queen upon account of my fearfulness; and she used to ask me whether the people of my country were as great cowards as myself?

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I gazed on it with gloom and pain: nothing soft, nothing sweet, nothing pitying, or hopeful, or subduing did it inspire; only a grating anguish for her woes—not my loss—and a sombre tearless dismay at the fearfulness of death in such a form.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It came happily while she was thus waiting; and there being neither ceremony nor fearfulness to delay the moment of meeting, she was with him as he entered the house, and the first minutes of exquisite feeling had no interruption and no witnesses, unless the servants chiefly intent upon opening the proper doors could be called such.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)