panic

noun

(uncountable) Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare.

(countable, economics, finance) A rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of such prices continuing to decline.

(countable, US, originally theater, colloquial) A highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show; a riot, a scream.

(by extension) A plant of the genus Panicum, or of similar plants of other genera (especially Echinochloa and Setaria) formerly included within Panicum; panicgrass or panic grass.

(originally) Foxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica), the second-most widely grown species of millet.

The edible grain obtained from one of the above plants.

(countable, computing) Ellipsis of kernel panic (“on Unix-derived operating systems: an action taken by the operating system when it cannot recover from a fatal error”); (by extension) any computer system crash. [(computing) On Unix-derived operating systems, an action taken by the operating system when it cannot recover from a fatal error. The system halts, displays an error, and dumps kernel memory to disk.]

verb

(transitive) To cause (someone) to feel panic (“overwhelming fear or fright”); also, to frighten (someone) into acting hastily.

(intransitive) To feel panic, or overwhelming fear or fright; to freak out, to lose one's head.

(transitive) (US, colloquial) To highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show).

(intransitive) (computing) Of a computer system: to crash.

(transitive) (computing) To cause (a computer system) to crash.

adjective

Of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden.

Pertaining to or resulting from overwhelming fear or fright.

(by extension (see the etymology) )

(Greek mythology, archaic) Synonym of Pandean (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”).

(Greek mythology, archaic) Alternative letter-case form of Panic (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”). [(Greek mythology, archaic) Synonym of Pandean (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”).]

Roots

panpan- · Greek · god Pan

Synonyms for panic

affrightn scarev terrorn anxietyn frightn fearn nervousnessn trepidationn hysterian dreadn uneasinessn consternationn apprehensionn apprehensivenessn horrorn

Synonyms & related words for panic

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of panic — including affright, scare, terror, anxiety, fright, fear. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to panic

Explore words related to panic — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include panicking, swivet, panicky, panicked, anxiousness, jitters, crawlies, fearfulness. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for panic

Common synonyms for panic include affright, scare, terror, anxiety, fright, fear, nervousness, trepidation — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does panic come from?

The word panic breaks down into one root of Greek origin: the root pan-, from Greek pan (“god Pan”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.