scare

The word “scare” means a sudden fright, or an event that causes widespread alarm. In plain terms, a fright, or to give someone a fright.

“Scare” is pronounced skeh-uh (/skɛɚ/ in IPA).

Here is “scare” used in a sentence: “The health scare turned out to be a false alarm.”

Words with a similar meaning to “scare” include fright, frighten and terrify.

Depending on how it is used, “scare” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “scare” comes from Middle English. From Middle English sker/skere, "terror," related to an Old Norse verb for frightening.

“Scare” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Scare” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a sudden fright, or an event that causes widespread alarm.

The two verbs mean essentially the same thing, to make someone feel fear, and are interchangeable in most sentences. Scare is the more informal, everyday choice and often describes a brief or mild fright, while frighten can sound slightly more formal or serious.

Scared and afraid both describe feeling fear, but they behave differently in grammar. Afraid is used only after verbs like be, feel or seem, so you can say "a scared child" but not "an afraid child"; scared is also generally the more informal of the two.

In these phrases, a scare is an event that causes sudden, widespread alarm, often one that turns out to be less serious than first feared. A health scare is a period of anxiety about a possible illness, and a bomb scare is an alert over a suspected explosive device.

Yes, the phrasal verbs scare off and scare away are interchangeable: both mean to frighten a person or animal into leaving, or into deciding not to do something. For example, high prices can scare off, or scare away, potential buyers.