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affright

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

To frighten or terrify suddenly and severely; also used as a noun meaning sudden fear or alarm, common in Gothic and dramatic poetry.

Detailed Definition
“Affright” combines immediacy and intensity, often used in poetic descriptions of supernatural encounters or battlefield panic. Common in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, it conveys visceral emotional response with rhythmic efficiency. The noun form also appears in phrases like “in affright,” enhancing dramatic pacing. Its use signals a moment of rupture—where reason yields to instinct—making it ideal for scenes of revelation, horror, or divine intervention.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Affrighted by the thunder’s sudden roar," wrote Wordsworth in a draft of The Prelude; In "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," the wedding guest is "affrighted" by the Mariner’s skeletal hand; Milton describes Satan’s approach as causing "affright" among the rebel angels; "She stood affright, her pale cheek blanched with fear," in a ballad of haunted woods; Keats’s Lamia causes "affright" when her true form is revealed; A sudden cry in the night sent the villagers affright.
Additional Notes
“Affright” functions both as verb and noun; as a verb, it conveys sudden terror (e.g., “affrighted by the ghost”), while as a noun it denotes the state of alarm itself; it appears often in Gothic and Romantic poetry to evoke supernatural or psychological shock.
Also Known As
frighten terrify alarm
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