frightful synonyms

frightful

modif.

  1. Causing fright

    fearful, awful, dreadful, horrifying, frightening, terrifying, alarming, scary, horrible, terrible, awesome, awe-inspiring, direful, gruesome, traumatic, ghastly, grisly, macabre, lurid, petrifying, unnerving, hair-raising, bloodcurdling, nightmarish, shocking, repellent, harrowing, appalling, horrific, atrocious, unspeakable, inconceivable, ominous, portentous, fearsome, dismaying, demoralizing, disturbing, disquieting, eerie, weird, uncanny, spooky*, creepy*. *

    Antonyms charming*, reassuring, alluring. *

  2. Very bad or unpleasant

    calamitous, shocking, terrible, horrendous; see offensive 2.

Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.