Word: fearful

Associations

"Fearful" describes a feeling of being afraid or anxious about something. It can relate to both physical fears and inner worries.

• Example 1: "The fearful child hid behind his mother during the thunderstorm." (This shows how a child can feel afraid of natural events.)
• Example 2: "She felt fearful about starting her new job because it was in a new city." (This expresses anxiety about change and new experiences.)
• Example 3: "His fearful expression revealed that he was worried about the upcoming exam." (This highlights an internal fear regarding performance.)

A well-known synonym for "fearful" is "afraid." The important difference is that "fearful" often emphasizes a deeper sense of dread or anxiety, while "afraid" can be used for more immediate or surface-level fears.

Substitution

If you want to use different words, you might consider:

• "anxious" (this suggests a worry about something uncertain),
• "scared" (this tends to refer to a more immediate fear),
• "terrified" (this indicates a much stronger feeling than "fearful").

Depending on the word you choose, the intensity of the feeling changes.

Deconstruction

The word "fearful" can be broken down:

• Root: "fear," which comes from Old English "fǣr," meaning danger or fright.
• Suffix: "-ful," which means "full of" or "characterized by." Thus, "fearful" literally means "full of fear."

Historically, "fear" has evolved to encompass many kinds of anxieties, from rational to irrational.

Inquiry

• Can you think of a time when you felt "fearful"? What was the situation?
• How does being "fearful" affect your decisions or actions?
• In what other situations might someone use the word "fearful"? Consider both personal and broader contexts.