Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Intense, overpowering fear. synonym: fear.
- noun One that instills intense fear.
- noun The ability to instill intense fear.
- noun Violence committed or threatened by a group, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political goals.
- noun The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
- noun Informal An annoying person or thing, especially an ill-mannered or disruptive child.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Extreme fear or fright; violent dread.
- noun A person or thing that terrifies or strikes with terror; a cause of dread or extreme fear: often used in humorous exaggeration.
- To fill with terror.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Extreme fear; fear that agitates body and mind; violent dread; fright.
- noun That which excites dread; a cause of extreme fear.
- noun death.
- noun (French Hist.) See in Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable intense
dread ,fright , orfear . - noun countable specific instances of being intensely terrified
- noun uncountable the action or quality of causing dread;
terribleness , especially such qualities in narrative fiction - noun countable something or someone that causes such fear.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a very troublesome child
- noun the use of extreme fear in order to coerce people (especially for political reasons)
- noun a person who inspires fear or dread
- noun an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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If Iraq is key to Bush's 'terror war' ... we're losing yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'If Iraq is key to Bush\'s \'terror war\' ... we\'re losing '; yahooBuzzArticleSummary =' Article: If Democrats are going to continue to acknowledge Bush\'s \'terror war\ ', they should oblige him and aggressively tie it to the quagmire in Iraq and his regime\'s wallowing failures elsewhere in the world.'
If Iraq is key to Bush's 'terror war' . . . we're losing 2006
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Terrorist movements have frequently consisted of members of the educated middle classes, but there has also been agrarian terrorism, terror by the uprooted and the rejected, and trade union and working-class terror .
The Riddle of Terrorism Bakhash, Shaul 1987
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I often sat and wondered why the monster didn't flee in terror from the report of the gun.
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Don't you love the little cartoon boy and girl running in terror from the invading Martian death rays?
May 27th, 2009 m_francis 2009
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I often sat and wondered why the monster didn't flee in terror from the report of the gun.
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But their assassinations and long history of hostage-taking have earned FARC the label terror organization by the U.S. and the European Union.
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But their assassinations and long history of hostage-taking has earned FARC the label terror organization by the United States and the European Union.
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Suffice it to say, my honest anger for the victims of Katrina used the term terror in its appropriate definition.
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The West does not own the term terror, nor does this administration.
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Similarly, the term terror suspects is used liberally, with little indication of what such suspicion is based on.
alexz commented on the word terror
"a terror of Tyrannosaurs"
a proposed name for a group of Tyrannosaurs, according to Dr. Richard McCrae http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/2014/09/06/2014-09-06-3/
September 7, 2014
bilby commented on the word terror
What if they were the cute hipster Tyrannosaurs from my basket-weaving class?
September 7, 2014
ry commented on the word terror
yo, I was just looking at Wikipedia re: collective nouns and found out a fun old name for collective nouns specific to animals: term of venery
September 12, 2014