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PlainSpell

fearful

fear·fulUK /ˈfɪəfəl/adjective, adverb

fearful is spelled F-E-A-R-F-U-L: 7 letters and 2 syllables (fear·ful). It appears 3.8 times per million words in written English, the 13,321st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, fearful means “Frightening; causing fear” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in fearful?

Letters7: F-E-A-R-F-U-L
Syllables2: fear·ful
In writing3.8 times per million words; the 13,321st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is fearful?

Fearful appears 3.8 times per million words in written English, the 13,321st 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).

How do you pronounce fearful?

  • UK /ˈfɪəfəl/
  • UK /ˈfɪəfʊl/
  • British /ˈfɪːfəl/

Fearful has 2 syllables, split fear·ful in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fearful.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with fearful?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as fearful from its last stressed vowel (/ɪəfəl/, British pronunciation):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of fearful

  • more fearful comparative
  • most fearful superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does fearful mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Frightening; causing fear.

  2. 2

    Tending to fear; timid.

    a fearful boy

  3. 3

    datedTerrible; shockingly bad.

  4. 4

    archaicFrightened; filled with terror.

adverb

  1. 1

    Extremely; fearfully.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fearful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frencheffrayant, redoutable (frightening), craintif, peureux, timoré (tending to fear), terrible (terrible)
Germanfurchtbar (frightening), ängstlich, furchtsam, scheu (tending to fear), verängstigt (frightened, filled with terror)
Portugueseamedrontador (frightening), temeroso (tending to fear), amedrontado (frightened, filled with terror)
Spanishespantadizo, timorato, tímido (tending to fear), miedoso, temeroso (frightened, filled with terror)

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 fearful come from?

From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear + -ful.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after fearful