eerie
Americanadjective
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uncanny, so as to inspire superstitious fear; weird
an eerie midnight howl.
-
Chiefly Scot. affected with superstitious fear.
adjective
Related Words
See weird.
Other Word Forms
- eerily adverb
- eeriness noun
Etymology
Origin of eerie
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English eri, dialectal variant of argh, Old English earg “cowardly”; cognate with Old Frisian erg, Old Norse argr “evil,” German arg “cowardly”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At first, the feeling was eerie; the cameras peered into a city with dimmed lights, shrouded in silence.
From Salon • Mar. 7, 2026
The facts in the Gray case bear an eerie similarity to the Crumbleys’.
From Slate • Mar. 5, 2026
"It's still relatively calm as there are only loud noises every few hours, but it is eerie because this is not the Dubai we are used to," Jaganathan explained.
From BBC • Mar. 1, 2026
“We’ve seen the eerie world of ‘1984’ where everything’s two plus two equals five,” Selig told The Wall Street Journal, referencing George Orwell’s dystopian novel.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 21, 2026
The forest had that eerie quality she had noticed near the caracal’s cave.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
