Meaning & use
panic
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A sudden rush of intense fear that makes a person act wildly or stop thinking clearly, or such fear spreading through a crowd.
Grammar: Uncountable for the feeling in general (fear led to panic); countable for one episode (a panic broke out).
Patterns
- in a panic
- panic about something
- a panic over something
When the lights went out, a wave of panic swept through the theater.
She called me in a panic because she had lost her passport.
There is no need for panic; the fire drill is only a test.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To be overcome by sudden fear so that you cannot think or act sensibly, or to make someone feel this way.
Grammar: Usually no object (don't panic); with an object it means to frighten someone into reacting (the noise panicked the horses).
Patterns
- panic about something
- panic at something
- panic someone into doing something
Don't panic if you miss the first bus; another comes in ten minutes.
The sudden bang panicked the horses, and they bolted across the field.
Students often panic just before an exam and forget what they know.
Word forms
| third person singular | panics |
|---|---|
| past tense | panicked |
| past participle | panicked |
| -ing form | panicking |
| plural | panics |
Common combinations
- in a panic
- He searched his pockets in a panic for the train tickets.
- panic attack
- She had a panic attack in the crowded elevator.
- panic buying
- Panic buying left the shelves empty of flour for a week.
- cause panic
- False rumors of a shortage can cause panic in the market.
- panic button
- The nurse pressed the panic button to call for help.
- blind panic
- The crowd ran for the exits in blind panic.
Synonyms and how they differ
- alarm
- Alarm is a milder, often shorter jolt of worry, while panic means fear so strong that sensible action stops.
- hysteria
- Hysteria suggests wild, uncontrolled emotion shared by many people, whereas panic can be a single person's sudden fear.
- terror
- Terror stresses the extreme size of the fear, not the loss of clear thinking that panic stresses.
- freak out
- Freak out is an informal phrasal verb for reacting with panic or strong upset, and it sounds too casual for formal writing.
Opposites
Word family
- panicky adjective
- feeling or showing sudden fear
- panicked adjective
- affected by or caused by panic, as in a panicked voice
- panic-stricken adjective
- completely overcome by fear
- panicky adjective
- easily gripped by sudden worry
Commonly confused: panic or anxiety?
panic vs anxiety
Anxiety is a lasting, often low-level worry about what might happen, while panic is a sudden, sharp burst of fear.
Practice
When the smoke alarm rang, the children started to ______ and ran in different directions.
Choose one answer.
Panic means to be gripped by sudden fear and act without thinking, which fits running in all directions. Pause and ponder suggest calm behavior, and persist means to continue.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “panic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.