# terror
## English
### Alternative forms

* terrour (obsolete or hypercorrect)

### Etymology

From late Middle English terrour, from Old French terreur f (“terror, fear, dread”), from Latin terror m (“fright, fear, terror”), from terrēre (“to frighten, terrify”), from Old Latin tr̥reō, from Proto-Italic *trozeō, from Proto-Indo-European *tre- (“to shake”), *tres- (“to tremble”).

### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈtɛɹ.ɚ/
** (some accents) IPA: /tɛɚ/
** Audio (US); /ˈtɛɹ.ɚ/:(file)
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈtɛ.ɹə/
* (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA: /ˈte.ɹə/
* (Scotland) IPA: /ˈtɛ.ɹəɹ/
* (Philadelphia, merry–Murray merger) IPA: /ˈtʌ.ɹɚ/
* Rhymes: -ɛɹə(ɹ), -ɛə(ɹ)
* Hyphenation: ter‧ror
* Homophones: tare, tear (some American accents)
* Homophones: terra, Terra (both non-rhotic); tearer (Mary–marry–merry merger)

### Noun

terror (countable and uncountable, plural terrors)
* (countable, uncountable) Intense dread, fright, or fear.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fear
** 1794, William Godwin, Things as they are; or, The adventures of Caleb:The terrors with which I was seized […] were extreme.
** 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:"How thinkest thou that I rule this people? I have but a regiment of guards to do my bidding, therefore it is not by force. It is by terror. My empire is of the imagination."
** 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 9:Fear of their cargo bred a savage cruelty into the crew. One captain, to strike terror into the rest, killed a slave and dividing heart, liver and entrails into 300 pieces made each of the slaves eat one, threatening those who refused with the same torture. Such incidents were not rare.
* (uncountable) The action or quality of causing dread; terribleness, especially such qualities in narrative fiction.
** 1921, Edith Birkhead, The tale of terror: a study of the Gothic romance:
* (countable) Something or someone that causes such fear.
** 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, →OCLC, page 474:The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!
** 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, (Please provide the book title or journal name):The terrors of the storm
** 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.
* (uncountable) Terrorism.
    a terror attack
    the War on Terror
** 2019 July 15, Greg Afinogenov, “The Jewish Case for Open Borders”, in Jewish Currents‎, number Summer 2019:Rank-and-file progressives don’t usually think of the immigration policies they support—expanding refugee quotas, easing restrictions on some classes of immigrants, and ending family separation—as an endorsement of detention, deportation, and racialized terror.
* (pathology, countable) A night terror.
* (Philippines, slang) A strict teacher that fails most of the students.

#### Derived terms

* agroterror
* antiterror
* balance of terror
* bioterror
* counterterror
* cyberterror
* ecoterror
* holy terror
* megaterror
* narcoterror
* night terror
* nonterror
* pterror
* red terror
* reign of terror
* saffron terror
* sleep terror
* stochastic terror
* terrification
* terror bird
* terror-bomb
* terrorbomb
* terror bomb
* terror bombing
* terror-bombing
* terror cell
* terrorcore
* terrorful
* terrorise
* terrorism
* terrorist
* terroristic
* terrorize
* terrorized
* terrorless
* terrorsome
* terrorsploitation
* terror-stricken
* terrorstricken
* terrorstruck
* white terror
* yellow terror

#### Related terms

* in terrorem
* terrible
* terrific
* terrify
* terrorism
* terrorist

#### Translations

Albanian: terror (sq), tmerr (sq)
Arabic: رُعْب m (ruʕb), هَوْل m (hawl), ذُعْر m (ḏuʕr), خَوْف (ar) m (ḵawf)
Armenian: ահ (hy) (ah), սարսափ (hy) (sarsapʻ)
Azerbaijani: dəhşət (az)
Belarusian: жах m (žax)
Bulgarian: у́жас (bg) m (úžas)
Catalan: terror (ca) m or f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 恐怖 (hung$^2$ bou$^3$)
Mandarin: 恐怖 (zh) (kǒngbù)
Czech: hrůza (cs) f
Danish: terror c
Egyptian: (nrw)
Esperanto: teruro (eo)
Finnish: kauhu (fi)
French: terreur (fr) f, effroi (fr) m
Galician: terror m, espanto m
German: Schrecken (de) m, Grauen (de) n, schreckliche Furcht f
Greek: τρόμος (el) m (trómos)
Ancient: δεῖμα n (deîma), πτῆξις f (ptêxis), πτοία f (ptoía), ὀρρωδία f (orrhōdía)
Hebrew: אֵימָה (he) f (eimá)
Hindi: दहशत (hi) f (dahśat), वहशत (hi) f (vahśat), सहम (hi) m (saham)
Hungarian: rettegés (hu), rémület (hu), borzalom (hu)
Icelandic: ógn (is) f, skelfing f, hræðsla (is) f
Indonesian: kengerian (id)
Irish: uafás m, scéin f
Japanese: 恐怖 (ja) (きょうふ, kyōfu)
Kazakh: қорқыныш (qorqynyş)
Khmer: ភេរវារម្មណ៍ (pheirĕəʼviərɑm)
Korean: 공포(恐怖) (ko) (gongpo)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: sehm (ku), dehşet (ku)
Kyrgyz: коркунуч (ky) (korkunuc)
Ladino: espanto, estremisyon, terror
Latin: terror m
Macedonian: ужас m (užas)
Malagasy: tahotra (mg)
Malay: kengerian, dahsyat (ms), seram (ms)
Malayalam: ഭീകരത (ml) (bhīkarata), നടുക്കം (ml) (naṭukkaṁ)
Marathi: दहशत f (dahśat)
Middle English: terrour
Navajo: ił hóóyééʼ
Nepali: भय (bhaya), त्रास (trās), त्रास (trās)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: terror (no) m
Nynorsk: terror m
Ottoman Turkish: دهشت (dehşet), قورقو (korku)
Pashto: دهشت (ps) m (dahšat), وحشت m (vahšat)
Persian: وَحْشَت (fa) (vahšat), دَهْشَت (fa) (dahšat)
Plautdietsch: Schrakj m
Polish: groza (pl) f
Portuguese: terror (pt) m
Romanian: spaimă (ro), teroare (ro) f
Russian: у́жас (ru) m (úžas)
Sanskrit: त्रास (sa) (trāsa), भय (sa) (bhaya)
Scottish Gaelic: maoim f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: у̏жа̄с m
Roman: ȕžās (sh) m
Slovak: hrôza f
Slovene: groza (sl) f
Spanish: terror (es) m
Swedish: terror (sv)
Tajik: даҳшат (dahšat), ваҳшат (vahšat)
Tocharian B: empelñe, īwate
Turkish: dehşet (tr)
Ukrainian: жах m (žax)
Urdu: دَہْشَت f (dahśat), وَحْشَت (ur) f (vahśat), سَہْم m (sahm)
Uzbek: dahshat (uz), qoʻrquv (uz), vahshat (uz)
Vietnamese: sự khiếp (vi) :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### See also

* alarm
* consternation
* dismay
* dread
* fright

### References

* “terror”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* terror in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
* “terror”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “terror”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* rorter

## Catalan
### Etymology

(Can this etymology be sourced?) Borrowed from Latin terrōrem m.

### Pronunciation

* This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.
* IPA: (Central) [təˈror]
* IPA: (Balearic) [təˈro]
* IPA: (Valencia) [teˈroɾ]

### Noun

terror m or (archaic, regional or poetic) f (plural terrors)
* terror, horror

## Danish
### Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

### Pronunciation

* This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.
* This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

### Noun

terror c (singular definite terroren, not used in plural form)
* terror

### References

* “terror” in Den Danske Ordbog

## Galician
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin terror m.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /tɛˈroɾ/ [t̪ɛˈroɾ]
* Rhymes: -oɾ
* Hyphenation: te‧rror

### Noun

terror m (plural terrores)
* terror
    Synonyms: espanto, horror, pavor

#### Related terms

* aterrorizar
* terrorífico
* terrorismo m
* terrorista

### References

* Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “terror”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
* Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “terror”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
* “terror”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025
* “terror” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).
* Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “terror”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

## Hungarian
### Etymology

Borrowed from English terror, from Latin terror m.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈtɛrːor]
* Hyphenation: ter‧ror
* Rhymes: -or

### Noun

terror (plural terrorok)
* terror (especially the action or quality of causing dread)
    Synonym: megfélemlítés

#### Derived terms

* terrortámadás

### References

* ↑ Tótfalusi, István. Idegenszó-tár: Idegen szavak értelmező és etimológiai szótára (’A Storehouse of Foreign Words: an explanatory and etymological dictionary of foreign words’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2005. →ISBN

### Further reading

* terror in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

## Latin
### Etymology

From terreō (“to frighten, terrify”) +‎ -or.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈter.ror/, [ˈt̪ɛrːɔr]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈter.ror/, [ˈt̪ɛrːor]

### Noun

terror m (genitive terrōris); third declension
* a dread, terror, great fear, alarm, panic
    Synonyms: pavor m, timor m, metus m
* an object of fear or dread

#### Declension

Third-declension noun.

#### Related terms

* terreō
* terribilis
* terribilitās f
* terricula n pl or f

#### Descendants

* → Catalan: terror m or f
* → Finnish: terrori
* → Old French: terreur f, terrour
** Middle French: terreur f
*** French: terreur f
**** →? Dutch: terreur
***** → Indonesian: teror
**** → Persian: ترور (teror, “assassination”)
**** → Romanian: teroare f
*** → Middle English: terrour, terrawr
**** English: terror
**** Scots: terror
* → Galician: terror m (learned)
* → German: Terror
* →? Italian: terrore m
* →? Piedmontese: teror
* → Portuguese: terror m
* →? Russian: терро́р m inan (terrór)
* Sicilian: tirruri
* → Serbo-Croatian: tèrōr m
* → Spanish: terror m

### References

* “terror”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “terror”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. to inspire fear, terror: timorem, terrorem alicui inicere, more strongly incutere terror, panic seizes some one: terror incidit alicui terror, panic seizes some one: terror invadit in aliquem (rarely alicui, after Livy aliquem) to overwhelm some one with terror: in terrorem conicere aliquem

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Etymology

Borrowed from English terror, borrowed from Latin terror m.

### Pronunciation

* This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!
* This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

### Noun

terror m (definite singular terroren, uncountable)
* terror

#### Derived terms

* terrorangrep
* terrorhandling
* terrorregime

### References

* “terror” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology

Borrowed from English terror, borrowed from Latin terror m.

### Pronunciation

* This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.
* IPA: [ˈtʰerru̞r]

### Noun

terror m (definite singular terroren, uncountable)
* terror

#### Derived terms

* terrorhandling
* terrorregime

### References

* “terror” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

## Polish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English terror, borrowed from Old French terreur f, borrowed from Latin terror m, from terrēre (“to frighten, terrify”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈtɛr.rɔr/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛrrɔr
* Syllabification: ter‧ror

### Noun

terror m inan
* (politics) terror (policy of political repression and violence intended to subdue political opposition)

#### Derived terms

* antyterrorystyczny
* terrorystyczny
* antyterrorysta
* terrorysta
* terrorystka
* terroryzm
* sterroryzować
* terroryzować

### Further reading

* terror in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
* terror in Polish dictionaries at PWN

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin terrōrem m.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /teˈʁoʁ/ [teˈhoh]
* (Brazil) IPA: /teˈʁoʁ/ [teˈhoh]
** (São Paulo) IPA: /teˈʁoɾ/ [teˈhoɾ]
** (Rio de Janeiro) IPA: /teˈʁoʁ/ [teˈχoχ]
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /teˈʁoɻ/ [teˈhoɻ]
* (Portugal) IPA: /tɨˈʁoɾ/
* (Portugal) IPA: /tɨˈʁoɾ/
** (Southern Portugal) IPA: /tɨˈʁo.ɾi/
* Audio (Southern Brazil):(file)
* Hyphenation: ter‧ror

### Noun

terror m (plural terrores)
* terror (intense fear)
** 2003, J. K. Rowling, Lia Wyler, Harry Potter e a Ordem da Fênix, Rocco, page 493:Os olhos do elfo se arregalavam de terror e ele tremia.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** 2009, Robson Campos De Abreu, Teatro para Mágicos, Clube de Autores, page 60:A música é tão importante que existe até categoria de premiação no Oscar, pois a mesma ajuda a criar todo o clima que vemos nos filmes[,] seja este um filme divertido e infantil, ou seja, aquele terror super hiper mega blaster assustador.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
* (Brazil, slang) a very troublesome person or thing
    Você é um terror, garoto! ― You're naughty, boy!
    Esses bandidos são um terror ― Those criminals are terrible!

#### Derived terms

* aterrorizar
* terrorismo m
* terrorista

### Further reading

* “terror”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
* “terror”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin terrorem m.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /teˈroɾ/ [t̪eˈroɾ]
* Rhymes: -oɾ
* Syllabification: te‧rror

### Noun

terror m (plural terrores)
* terror
* (genre) horror

#### Derived terms

* aterrorizar
* cine de terror
* película de terror
* terrorífico
* terrorismo
* terrorista

#### Related terms

* terrible

### References

* ↑ Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1983–1991) “terror”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), Madrid: Gredos

### Further reading

* “terror”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

## Swedish
### Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

### Pronunciation

* This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!
* This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

### Noun

terror c
* terror

#### Derived terms

* brevterror
* ljudterror
* telefonterror
* terroraktion
* terrorangrepp
* terrorattack
* terrorattentat
* terrorbalans
* terrorbekämpning
* terrorberedskap
* terrorbombning
* terrorbrott
* terrorcell
* terrordåd
* terrorgrupp
* terrorhandling
* terrorhot
* terrorkrig
* terrorkrigföring
* terrorledare
* terrornätverk
* terroroffer
* terrororganisation
* terrorregemente
* terrorregim
* terrorstämpel
* terrorstämpla
* terrorstämpling
* terrorvapen
* terrorverksamhet
* terrorvåg
* terrorvälde

#### Related terms

* terrorisera
* terrorism
* terrorist