# eerie

Pronunciation: say "EER-ee" US /ˈɪɚi/, UK /ˈɪəɹi/

## Adjective

1. Strange and frightening, especially in a mysterious or shadowy way.
   - Simple: Strange and scary, often in a dark or mysterious way.
   - _An eerie silence settled over the town after the sirens stopped._
   - _The fog gave the abandoned pier an even eerier look._
2. Feeling frightened, or timid and easily scared. *(dialectal, Scotland)*
   - Simple: Feeling afraid, or easily frightened.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A strange and frightening creature or thing.

## Origin

Old English earg meant "cowardly, fearful." It came from Proto-Germanic *argaz and became Middle English eri ("fearful"). The same Old English word gave Scots ergh or argh, and argh is a doublet of eerie.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/eerie (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).