eerie
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɪəɹi/
note: General American, mirror–nearer merger
ipa: /ˈɪɹi/
note: without the mirror–nearer merger
ipa: /ˈɪɚi/
note: without the mirror–nearer merger
ipa: /ˈiɹi/
ipa: /ˈiɹɪ/
ipa: /ˈiɹe/
ipa: /ˈiəɹi/
note: East Anglia, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /ˈɛːɹi/
rhymes: -ɪəɹi
homophone: airy (cheer–chair merger)
Forms: form: eerier
form: eeriest
form: eery
Etymology: From Middle English eri (“fearful”), from Old English earg (“cowardly, fearful”), from Proto-West Germanic *arg, from Proto-Germanic *argaz. Akin to Scots ergh, argh from the same Old English source. Doublet of argh.
Senses: examples: text: The eerie sounds seemed to come from the graveyard after midnight.
text: An eerie feeling came over me.
ref: 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 200:
text: Dan was beginning to feel very depressed when suddenly the eerie howl of a dingo rang out[.]
ref: 1943, H. Lorna Bingham, The Lost Tribe, Sydney: Winn and Co., page 13, column 2:
text: I was working in the lab late one night / When my eyes beheld an eerie sight / For my monster, from his slab, began to rise / And suddenly, to my surprise / He did the Mash / He did the Monster Mash.
ref: 1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:
text: The whole city is immersed in a dystopian-looking smog: urban streets in sepia, emptier than usual, bathed in an eerie quiet.
ref: 2023 June 7, Samira Asma-Sadeque, “‘It’s too much’: New Yorkers don masks or stay inside amid smog crisis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
synonyms: word: creepy
word: spooky
word: aberrant
word: abnormal
word: alien
word: anomalous
word: as queer as Dick's hatband
word: bizarre
word: curious
word: deviant
word: discrepant
word: eerie
word: eldritch
word: errant
word: exceptional
word: extraordinary
word: fey
word: forby
word: freak
word: freakish
word: freaky
word: fremd
word: funny
word: heteroclite
word: hinky
word: incongruous
word: incongruitous
word: irregular
word: kooky
word: monstrous
word: nonstandard
word: odd
word: outlandish
word: out of the ordinary
word: outré
word: peculiar
word: quaint
word: queer
word: queer as a clockwork orange
word: queer as a nine bob note
word: queer as a three dollar bill
word: queer as a coot
word: queer as Dick's hatband
word: rare
word: rum
word: rummy
word: selcouth
word: seld
word: singular
word: strange
word: trippy
word: uncanny
word: uncommon
word: unconventional
word: unearthly
word: unexpected
word: unreasonable
word: unusual
word: unwonted
word: weird
word: weirdsome
word: yampy
glosses: Inspiring fear, especially in a mysterious or shadowy way; strange, weird.
examples: text: She began to feel eerie.
ref: 1883, George MacDonald, Donal Grant:
text: 'It is my business to read the hearts o' men,' said the other. 'And who may ye be?' said Heriotside, growing eerie.
ref: 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
glosses: Frightened, timid.
Synonyms: word: chilling
word: creepy
word: eldritch
word: freakish
word: frightening
word: grim
word: offputting
word: scary
word: sinister
word: spooky
word: unsettling
Hypernyms: word: odd
word: peculiar
word: strange
word: uncanny
word: weird
word: characteristic
Derived terms: word: eerieness
word: eerily
word: eeriness
word: eerisome
Related terms: word: sus