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fierce

UK /fɪəs/adjective, adverb

fierce is spelled F-I-E-R-C-E: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, fierce means “Exceedingly violent, severe, ferocious, cruel or savage” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in fierce?

Letters6: F-I-E-R-C-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing8.3 times per million words; the 8,036th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is fierce?

Fierce appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th 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 fierce?

  • UK /fɪəs/
  • British /fɪːs/
  • British /fɪjəs/

Fierce has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

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

Forms of fierce

  • fiercer comparative
  • more fierce comparative
  • fiercest superlative
  • most fierce superlative

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

What does fierce mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Exceedingly violent, severe, ferocious, cruel or savage.

    A fierce storm battered the coast.

  2. 2

    Resolute or strenuously active.

    We made a fierce attempt to escape.

  3. 3

    Threatening in appearance or demeanor.

    The lion gave a fierce roar.

  4. 4

    IrelandslangExcellent, very good.

    Q: "How was the party last night?" A: "Fierce!"

  5. 5

    USOf exceptional quality, exhibiting boldness or chutzpah.

    Tyra said to strike a pose and make it fierce.

adverb

  1. 1

    IrelandslangExtremely; very.

    It was fierce cold last night.

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

Fierce in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchféroce (extremely violent, severe, ferocious or savage)
Germanwild, heftig (extremely violent, severe, ferocious or savage), bedrohlich (threatening in appearance or demeanor)
Portugueseferoz (extremely violent, severe, ferocious or savage), impetuoso, ferrenho (resolute or strenuously active)
Spanishfiero, enconado (extremely violent, severe, ferocious or savage), torvo (threatening in appearance or demeanor)

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 fierce come from?

From Middle English fers, fiers, borrowed from Old French fers (“wild", "ferocious”), nominative of fer, from Latin ferus (“wild", "untamed”).

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

What to look up after fierce