Meaning & use
fear
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
The unpleasant feeling you get when you think you are in danger or something bad might happen.
Grammar: Uncountable for the feeling in general (she felt fear); countable for a specific worry (a fear of heights).
Patterns
- fear of something
- fear that something
He couldn't hide his fear before the exam.
Many children have a fear of the dark.
There is growing fear that prices will rise again.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To be afraid of someone or something, or to worry that something bad may happen.
Grammar: Takes an object (fear the worst) or no object with for (fear for her safety).
Patterns
- fear something
- fear for someone
- fear that something
Villagers feared the flood would destroy their homes.
I fear for my sister's safety on that road.
She feared that she had made a terrible mistake.
noununcountable
A reasonable chance that something unwelcome will happen.
Grammar: Used in phrases such as no fear of or for fear of.
Patterns
- fear of something
- for fear of something
There is little fear of the river flooding this year.
She kept quiet for fear of upsetting him.
Word forms
| third person singular | fears |
|---|---|
| past tense | feared |
| past participle | feared |
| -ing form | fearing |
| plural | fears |
Common combinations
- overcome a fear
- He joined a class to overcome his fear of flying.
- fear of failure
- Fear of failure stopped her from applying.
- struck by fear
- The crowd was struck by fear when the lights went out.
- fear the worst
- When she didn't call, we began to fear the worst.
- in fear of
- They lived in fear of another storm.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dread
- Suggests a heavy fear about something that is coming, often something you cannot avoid.
- terror
- Is much stronger than fear and means overwhelming, panicky fright.
- anxiety
- Is a more general, ongoing worry that often has no clear cause.
- alarm
- Is a sudden, short fear caused by noticing a possible danger.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: fear or afraid?
fear vs afraid
Afraid is an adjective used after a verb (she is afraid); fear is the noun or verb. Say a fear of dogs or afraid of dogs.
Practice
Choose the correct completion: She has a deep fear ___ spiders.
Choose one answer.
The noun fear takes of to name what is feared. The verb fear for, by contrast, means to worry about someone's safety.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fear”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.