Showing posts with label verb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label verb. Show all posts

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Terrified And Petrified

They do sound the same, and more or less give people the idea of experiencing fear. However there is a difference between them, else why should we have two different words in the first place?

Terrified is a past-tense verb which refers to getting frighten or menaced, or being in a state of intense fear. Example: She is terrified of her boss.

Petrified is also a past-tense verb, but it usually indicates  the loss of movement or being stunned due to fear. Example: She is petrified by the sight of blood filling up the bathtub.

Petrified has another meaning which is not commonly used. An action to convert organic matter into stone-hard material. However, to make things simple, I would usually prefer to remember Petrified, based on the first definition. Hope I have made your day by introducing the correct meaning for the words, and one less chance to get embarrassed by using them wrongly.