fearfully

fearfully — adverb

1. doing something while feeling or showing fear, nervousness, or concern about wha

1.adverbB1
Definition

doing something while feeling or showing fear, nervousness, or concern about what might happen

Example

The little girl clung fearfully to her mother's hand as the thunder roared outside.

verb + fearfully with physical action (cling)

Eshe looked around fearfully when she heard footsteps in the dark alley.

fearfully with looking / scanning verb

Common collocations
  • cling fearfully
  • stare fearfully
  • creep fearfully
  • look around fearfully
  • speak fearfully
Synonyms
  • nervously

    focuses on the feeling of worry rather than the direct emotion of fear

  • timidly

    suggests a lack of confidence or courage, not always rooted in immediate fear

  • apprehensively

    emphasises worry about something that may happen in the future

  • anxiously

    a more general term for worry or unease, not necessarily tied to a specific danger

Antonyms
  • fearlessly

    doing something without any fear at all

  • boldly

    showing confidence and a willingness to take risks

Grammar Patterns

verb + fearfully

fearfully + verb

Usage Note

Commonly pairs with verbs of movement or perception (creep, stare, look, speak, cling) to show that the action is done with fear.

Common Mistakes

She walked fearlessly into the dark room' (when meaning she was scared).
She walked fearfully into the dark room.
fearlessly means without fear; fearfully means with fear.

2. to emphasise that a quality exists to a very high degree, especially an unpleasa

2.adverbB2
Definition

to emphasise that a quality exists to a very high degree, especially an unpleasant or intense one

Example

The tickets were fearfully expensive, so we stayed home to watch a movie instead.

fearfully + adjective of cost

During the heatwave in Tokyo last July, the air was fearfully hot even after sunset.

fearfully + adjective (weather, with time-place context)

Common collocations
  • fearfully expensive
  • fearfully difficult
  • fearfully hot
  • fearfully loud
  • fearfully high
Synonyms
  • extremely

    neutral and widely usable across formal and informal contexts

  • terribly

    similar intensity but carries a slightly negative connotation

  • dreadfully

    more old-fashioned or British in tone, often used for emphasis in mild complaints

Antonyms
  • slightly

    indicates a small degree of a quality

  • barely

    suggests hardly reaching a certain level

Grammar Patterns

fearfully + adjective

Usage Note

Nearly always appears before an adjective. Common adjective partners include expensive, difficult, hot, loud, cold, and high. This sense is more informal than using 'extremely'.

Common Mistakes

It was fearfully a long journey' (adverb before article).
It was a fearfully long journey.
fearfully modifies the adjective 'long', not the noun 'journey'.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adverb/1

All four describe acting with unease, but they differ in the shade of emotion. Fearfully is the strongest and most direct — it suggests specific fear of a present danger or threat (e.g., a child fearfully watching a storm). Nervously implies tension or worry, often about performance or social situations rather than actual danger. Timidly highlights a lack of confidence or courage, so the action itself is hesitant and small. Apprehensively looks ahead to something uncertain, carrying a sense of dread about the future rather than fear of the present moment. Anxiously is the broadest term, covering both short-term worry and ongoing unease. For example: 'She nervously checked her phone before the interview' (social worry) vs. 'She fearfully checked the dark hallway for intruders' (present danger).

fearfully ↗nervously ↗timidlyapprehensivelyanxiously ↗

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Formed by adding the adverbial suffix -ly to the adjective fearful, which itself comes from the noun fear combined with the adjective suffix -ful ('full of'). The noun fear goes back to Old English fǣr, meaning 'sudden danger, calamity' — a word for external threat rather than internal emotion. Over time, fear shifted to describe the inner feeling of being afraid, and fearful / fearfully followed that change. The 'extremely' sense (fearfully expensive) appeared in the 1800s as an intensifier, following a common pattern where words for strong emotions become general emphasis words.