How to Use frightening in a Sentence

frightening

adjective
  • He gets knocked off the puck with frightening ease.
    — Josh Yohe, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2026
  • And for a child, what could be more frightening than that?
    — Caitlin White, Variety, 3 Oct. 2025
  • There’s no need to fret if these price jumps look a bit frightening.
    — Abby Wilson, Better Homes & Gardens, 27 Dec. 2023
  • Here are two of the most frightening trails (and tales).
    — Emilee Coblentz, Outside, 16 Oct. 2025
  • And that’s kind of a frightening thing.
    — Kate Bradshaw, Mercury News, 29 Sep. 2025
  • So, this is frightening and new.
    — Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
  • And so that’s frightening to me.
    — Fiction Non Fiction october 2, Literary Hub, 2 Oct. 2025
  • That should be frightening for the rest of the East.
    — David Aldridge, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2026
  • The thought of starting out again on my own is frightening.
    — R. Eric Thomas, Chicago Tribune, 2 May 2026
  • Thus began the five most frightening years of my life.
    — Joanna Conti, Baltimore Sun, 10 Jan. 2026
  • The first and, sometimes most frightening, step is to jump in.
    — Rayna Reid Rayford, Essence, 13 Jan. 2023
  • But even that was fairly frightening to her.
    — Théoden Janes, Charlotte Observer, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Customers weighed in on the frightening close call.
    — Carolyn Gusoff, CBS News, 19 June 2026
  • Apologies for frightening a few of you.
    — Lauren Huff, Entertainment Weekly, 17 Jan. 2026
  • The void left by the decline of the nation-state is frightening.
    — Joe Mathews, The Mercury News, 5 Oct. 2024
  • And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought.
    — Jack Royston, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 May 2025
  • Most frightening is the drug that seems to be everywhere these days.
    — From Usa Today Network and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 3 Nov. 2022
  • The children speak in a sort of wise and frightening pidgin.
    — Literary Hub, 10 Feb. 2026
  • That’s a frightening type of alarm for a certain kind of person.
    — Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026
  • The book opens with a flight through a pretty frightening lightning storm.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 2024
  • Others are more broad but even more frightening, like war and climate change.
    — Jason Fanelli, Rolling Stone, 18 Oct. 2024
  • My brother’s death was also present, but in a more frightening way.
    — Literary Hub, 13 Apr. 2026
  • This was a most frightening moment.
    — Eric Andersson, PEOPLE, 23 Nov. 2025
  • Over the last 10 months or so, a frightening new pattern has emerged.
    — Michelle Goldberg, Mercury News, 27 Sep. 2025
  • Things may get a little frightening.
    — Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 21 Jan. 2026
  • Of course, what's cozy to some might be frightening to others, and isn't that the joy of horror?
    — Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 18 Oct. 2025
  • The findings are stark, even frightening.
    — Andrew Freedman, CNN Money, 23 Mar. 2026
  • Was this a frightening scene of a landmark imperiled or just a trick of the eye?
    — David Wharton, Los Angeles Times, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Herta was able to get out of the car and walk away from the frightening accident.
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 17 May 2025
  • The hypocrisy is stunning, and frightening.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 29 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'frightening.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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