petrifying

1. 1.

   paralyzing with terror

   Similaralarming

Questions about petrifying

What does petrifying mean?

petrifying means "paralyzing with terror".

How many syllables are in petrifying?

petrifying has 3 syllables: pe-tri-fying. The stress falls on "pe".

Is petrifying a common word?

petrifying is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.