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say it: uh-FRAYD
afraid is an adjective meaning "filled with fear or apprehension". It carries 4 recorded senses.
filled with fear or apprehension
“afraid even to turn his head”
“suddenly looked afraid”
“afraid for his life”
“afraid of snakes”
“afraid to ask questions”
filled with regret or concern; used often to soften an unpleasant statement
“I'm afraid I won't be able to come”
“he was afraid he would have to let her go”
“I'm afraid you're wrong”
feeling worry or concern or insecurity
“She was afraid that I might be embarrassed”
“terribly afraid of offending someone”
“I am afraid we have witnessed only the first phase of the conflict”
having feelings of aversion or unwillingness
“afraid of hard work”
“afraid to show emotion”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for afraid come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.