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fear

Pronunciation: /fɪə/

The English word “fear” has 14 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
  2. A phobia, a sense of fear induced by something or someone in particular.
  3. Something one is afraid of; the object of one’s fear.
  4. Terrified veneration or reverence, particularly towards God, gods, or sovereigns.
  5. A feeling of dread and anxiety when waking after drinking a lot of alcohol, wondering what one did while drunk.

verb

  1. To be afraid of (something or someone); to consider or expect (something or someone) with alarm.
  2. To feel fear.
  3. To worry about, to feel concern for, to be afraid for [with for].
  4. To venerate; to feel awe towards.
  5. To regret.
  6. To cause fear to; to frighten.
  7. To be anxious or solicitous for.
  8. To suspect; to doubt.

adjective

  1. Able; capable; stout; strong; sound.

Etymology

From Middle English feer, fere, fer (“fear”), from Old English fǣr, ġefǣr (“calamity, sudden danger, peril, sudden attack, terrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *fērō, *fērą (“danger”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through, carry forth, try”). Cognate with Dutch gevaar (“danger, risk, peril”), German Gefahr (“danger, hazard, risk”), Danish fare (“danger, hazard, risk”), Faroese and…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.