frighten
frigh·ten/ˈfɹaɪ.tən/verb
frighten is a verb meaning “To cause to feel fear; to scare; to cause to feel alarm or fright” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-R-I-G-H-T-E-N and has 2 syllables (frigh·ten), and it appears 1.2 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does frighten mean?
verb
- 1
To cause to feel fear; to scare; to cause to feel alarm or fright.
Avery puts a sheet over her head, pretending to be a ghost to frighten Emily.
- 2
To become scared or alarmed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce frighten?
- /ˈfɹaɪ.tən/
- [ˈfɹ̥aɪtn̩]
- [ˈfɹ̥aɪʔn̩]
Frighten has 2 syllables, split frigh·ten in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-frighten.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of frighten
- frightens present, singular, he/she/it
- frightening participle, present
- frightened participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is frighten?
Frighten appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,092nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Frighten in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to disturb with fear:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | effrayer, redouter, terrifier |
| German | Angst machen, erschrecken, schrecken, beängstigen, ängstigen |
| Portuguese | intimidar, amedrontar, ameaçar |
| Spanish | atemorizar, amedrentar, asustar, amedrantar, aspaventar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does frighten come from?
From Middle English *frightenen, equivalent to fright + -en.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).