Meaning & use
spine-chilling
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Extremely frightening in a way that makes you feel a cold shiver of fear.
Grammar: Gradable: you can say 'more spine-chilling' or 'the most spine-chilling'.
Patterns
- a spine-chilling story
- spine-chilling scream
- it was spine-chilling to hear something
The movie was so spine-chilling that I couldn't sleep afterward.
She let out a spine-chilling scream that echoed through the empty house.
The documentary told a spine-chilling tale of survival in the mountains.
Word forms
| comparative | more spine-chilling |
|---|---|
| superlative | most spine-chilling |
Common combinations
- spine-chilling story
- He told a spine-chilling story about a ghost in the old hotel.
- spine-chilling scream
- A spine-chilling scream came from the dark forest.
- spine-chilling experience
- Riding the roller coaster was a spine-chilling experience.
- absolutely spine-chilling
- The silence after the crash was absolutely spine-chilling.
Synonyms and how they differ
- terrifying
- Terrifying means very frightening, but it does not necessarily suggest the physical shiver that spine-chilling does.
- blood-curdling
- Blood-curdling is similar but often describes a sound, like a scream, and is slightly more literary.
- creepy
- Creepy means causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease, but it is milder than spine-chilling.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: spine-chilling or spine-tingling?
spine-chilling vs spine-tingling
Spine-tingling can mean exciting or pleasurable, while spine-chilling usually means frightening.
Practice
The horror film was so ______ that many viewers had to look away.
Choose one answer.
'Spine-chilling' means extremely frightening, which fits a horror film that makes people look away. 'Spine-tingling' often means exciting in a pleasant way; 'chilly' means cold; 'thrilling' means exciting, not scary.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “spine-chilling”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.