These words refer to an upsetting emotional response to something unpleasant or dangerous. Fear is the most general of these and the least intense; it may suggest a mildly troubled emotion as well as more extreme states: her fear that the rain would damage her new shoes; his fear of facing the enemy’s mortar fire. It might also suggest mere timidity or, in another context, a vague state of psychological malaise: his fear of disagreeing with his boos; countless fears that leaped up whenever she had to face any new situation in life. Fright is more specific and more intense; it particularly suggests a sudden troubled reaction to some concrete external threat: filled with fright by the madman’s first lunge at her. The word can, unlike fear , have a slightly outmoded sound in some cases, especially because it has been used informally to describe anything ugly or unpleasant: a ball gown that was simply a fright .

Alarm and panic are words that may now sound more natural than fright in the context of a sudden external threat. Alarm , however, is almost as general as fear in extending from a mild uncertainty or uneasiness to intense and excited responses: his growing alarm at her lack of taste; the alarm that shone in his face as he saw the bridge begin to give way. When the word describes a more intense state, it suggests an initial response to danger, possibly in the instant when the danger is first recognized but before protective action can be taken: paralysed by alarm at the first news of the bombings. Panic , on the other hand, suggests the confused, hysterical actions that might follow the first feelings of alarm. It stresses ineffective action, especially of a group: the only one who did not lose his head in the general panic that filled the burning theatre. When the word is used of a single individual, action is not stressed so much as a disabling fear : He flailed the water helplessly in his sudden panic .

Horror and terror are closely related words that suggest an intense emotional upheaval at being confronted with something disgusting or dangerous. Horror stresses revulsion from the ugly or grotesque or from ethical depravity: They stood in horror at the unsanitary methods used to prepare their breakfast. It also suggests intense fear , possibly when the threat to one’s personal safety is unclear or absent: walking in horror through the snake room at the zoo; watching with horror as the tightrope walker struggled to regain his balance. Terror suggests a direct threat of personal danger; it is the most intense of all these words: He shook with terror as the door slammed shut and gas began to fill the room; huddled in terror along the walls of the air-raid shelter. When this pair of words refer to types of fiction, a fine distinction is often made between them. Horror , in this context, refers to a reliance on the grisly and macabre to gain a frightening effect: monsters, dungeons, open coffins ?all the trappings of the usual tale of horror . In contrast, terror suggests a story in which danger and suspense predominate, or one in which fear is called or disgusting: a tale of terror all the more chilling for being set in an ordinary living-room.