PANIC
What does "PANIC" mean?
A sudden overwhelming fear that spreads quickly and disrupts clear thinking.
Meanings
- Sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wild or irrational behaviour. Panic spread through the crowd when the lights went out.
- To feel or cause to feel sudden uncontrollable fear. Don't panic - we still have time.
- Of or like panic; marked by sudden fear. She made a panic phone call at midnight.
Did you know?
- Panic is named after a god: the Greeks blamed the goat-legged Pan for the sudden, contagious dread that gripped travellers and herds in the wild - the fear became 'panikon', the thing Pan caused.
Word origin
From Greek 'panikon', meaning fear caused by the god Pan, who was thought to inspire sudden terror in lonely places; via French 'panique' into English.
Remember it
PANIC = caused by the god PAN; picture his goat-legged shadow in the woods making the herd bolt.
A little poem
A branch cracks once where the dark path bends-
and a whole still crowd becomes a single bolt,
old Pan laughing somewhere the trail ends.
tercet
Wordplay
- Why don't Greek gods get nervous in crowds? Pan handles all the panic.
What it teaches
Fear travels faster than facts; the calm head in a crowd is doing real work.
Quick facts
What does PANIC mean?
A sudden overwhelming fear that spreads quickly and disrupts clear thinking.
Is PANIC a valid word?
Yes — PANIC is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is PANIC?
PANIC has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does PANIC come from?
From Greek 'panikon', meaning fear caused by the god Pan, who was thought to inspire sudden terror in lonely places; via French 'panique' into English.
What can PANIC teach us?
Fear travels faster than facts; the calm head in a crowd is doing real work.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.