Word family noun fear fearfulness ≠ fearlessness adjective fearful ≠ fearless fearsome verb fear adverb fearfully ≠ fearlessly
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfearfulfear‧ful /ˈfɪəfəl $ ˈfɪr-/ ●○○ adjective 1 formalFRIGHTENED frightened that something bad might happen a shy and fearful childfearful of People are fearful of rising crime in the area.fearful that Officials are fearful that the demonstrations will cause new violence.► see thesaurus at frightened2 British EnglishBAD extremely bad SYN awful, terrible The room was in a fearful mess.3 [only before noun] writtenFRIGHTENED very frightening SYN terrifying a fearful creature —fearfulness noun [uncountable]Examples from the Corpus
fearful• She looked red-eyed and white-faced, slightly fearful and anxious.• The old ones, fearful and suspicious, jealous even, were attempting to stifle young love.• a fearful noise• The 1989 Home Office report found that victims of burglary become more fearful of street crime as well.• My father had the most fearful temper that shot up in seconds.• The more we try to control nature, the more fearful we are that nature will answer our interference with violence.fearful that• We were fearful that a halt or a delay would result in other unfortunate occurrences in the Soviet Union.• He paused at the intersection, fearful that a hard leather boot was waiting for him no matter which way he ran.• I stood in the hallway, fearful that Meir Ahronson would ask me for an account of how I had fared.• Perhaps they have been fearful that supporting lesbian colleagues would mean they too would have to come out.• Brandon Thomas opted to unveil his Aunt away from London fearful that the capital's theatre critics would tear it to pieces.• Undoubtedly, they were fearful that the scouting report just might come to life.• Others may be fearful that they will not be able to cope without the support and guidance of the therapist. 