English → Latin
“fearful” in Latin
timidusfearful, afraid, apprehensive, timid; cowardlypavidustrembling, quaking, fearful, terrified, alarmed; timid, timorous, shytrepidusnervous, jumpy, agitated; perilous, alarming; fearful, trepidatiousignāvuslazy, slothful, inactive, sluggish; unproductive, idle; cowardlymetuōto fear, be afraid; to be anxious or afraid about or for a specific person or thing; to revere, dreadtimeōto fear, be afraid of, apprehend, be apprehensive of; to be afraid, to fear, to be apprehensiveterribilisfrightful, dreadful, terrible, horriblehorrendushorrible, horrendous, horrific, horrid, dreadful, dreaded, frightful, awfulhorribilishorrible, terrible, dreadful, fearfulformīdulōsusfrightened, fearful, timid; frightening, fearsome, dreadful
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
fearful
Timorous, timidus: pavidus: trepidus [SYN. in FEAR, s.] : formidinis plenus (full of fear and awe, Cic., Att., 9, 10, 2, instead of formidolosus, which does not belong to good prose): ignavus (cowardly; compare the substantives in FEAR): to be fearful, timidum, etc., esse (but not metuere or timere, absolutely): to become fearful, ad timorem se convertere: to make anybody fearful [Vid: “to put in FEAR”]: to pretend to be fearful, *metum (timorem), pavorem simulare: do not be fearful! omitte timorem!
Dreadful, metuendus: timendus (that is to be feared): terribilis (terrible): horrendus (horrible): horribilis: formidolosus (producing awe or horror; formidabilis is foreign to good prose): trux, truculentus (dreadful to behold, to hear; e.g., eyes, look, words, etc.): immanis (monstrous): ingens (enormous): A fearful war, bellum formidolosum, atrox: to present or depict anything as fearful, ad timorem aliquid proponere (Cic., Fam., 2, 16, 4): as very fearful, ad maximum timorem proponere (ib. 6, 3, 3): to make or render one’s self more fearful than powerful, plus timoris quam potentiae sibi addere. Vid: also, DREADFUL.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for fearful?
- The usual Latin words for “fearful” are timidus, pavidus, trepidus; also ignāvus, metuō, timeō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.