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terror

noun

  1. emotion of great fear
  2. policy of political repression and violence
  3. act or process of using extreme violence to intimidate for political or ideological reasons
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Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈtɛɹ.ɚ/ / /tɛɚ/ / /ˈtɛ.ɹə/

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tres- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *troséyeti Proto-Italic *trozeō Latin terreō Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *-ōs Proto-Italic *-ōs Latin -or Latin terrorbor. Old French terreur Middle French terreurbor. Middle English terrour English terror From late Middle English terrour, from Old French terreur f (“terror, fear, dread”), from Latin terror (“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”).

  1. A strict teacher who fails most of the students.

    I have a terror math teacher.

name

Etymology: Proper noun form of terror. Translation of French Terreur, as coined by the Thermidorian Reaction

  1. The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
  2. Any specific one of several historical reigns of terror.

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tres- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *troséyeti Proto-Italic *trozeō Latin terreō Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *-ōs Proto-Italic *-ōs Latin -or Latin terrorbor. Old French terreur Middle French terreurbor. Middle English terrour English terror From late Middle English terrour, from Old French terreur f (“terror, fear, dread”), from Latin terror (“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”).

  1. Intense dread, fright, or fear.

    The terrors with which I was seized […] were extreme.

    "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."

  2. The action or quality of causing dread; terribleness, especially such qualities in narrative fiction.
  3. Something or someone that causes such fear.

    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!

    The terrors of the storm

  4. Terrorism.

    a terror attack

    the War on Terror

  5. A night terror.