TERRIFYING

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does terrifying mean? 

• TERRIFYING (adjective)
  The adjective TERRIFYING has 1 sense:

1. causing extreme terror

  Familiarity information: TERRIFYING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TERRIFYING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Causing extreme terror

Synonyms:

terrific; terrifying

Context example:

a terrifying wail

Similar:

alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)

 Context examples 

But the hunger-madness made them terrifying, irresistible.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Not only was his body that of a giant but everything about him was grotesque, gigantic, and terrifying.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I moved from hiding-place to hiding-place, always pursued, or so it seemed to me, by these terrifying missiles.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

So, is the X-ray glow that fills the sky a sign of peaceful "charge exchange" in the solar system or evidence of terrifying explosions in the distant past?

(Evidence for supernovas near Earth, NASA)

But the slaughter in the body of the poems was terrifying.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)