Halloween vocabulary - abysmal adjectives

To get in the mood for Halloween, a favourite holiday in the UK and America, here’s a list of some useful adjectives to describe creepy scenarios! Perfect for building a scary scene and setting some devilish ambience – these are all adjectives with descriptions and examples. You have until October 31st to learn and use these wicked words to their best beastly ability.

alarming – very surprising – His new haircut was alarming.
beastly – horrible, wild – The weather was beastly on the moor.
bizarre – very odd / strange – There was a bizarre smell in the kitchen.
bloodcurdling – extremely scary (imagine something so scary it changes your blood) – The woman let out a bloodcurdling scream.
chilling – very scary (enough to make you shudder and shiver) – There was a chilling noise coming from the basement.
devilish – evil (though sometimes also in a charming way) – He had a devilish smile.
dreadful – extremely bad – I had a dreadful time at the park.
eerie – creepy, or uneasy – The town was covered by an eerie mist.
fearful – scary – A fearful ghost appeared through the wall.
frightening – scary – Tim drew a frightening picture of a monster.
frightful – scary – There is a frightful number of words in this adjective list.
ghastly – extremely bad – There had been a ghastly murder.
ghoulish – monstrous, demonic or evil – He had ghoulish eyes.
gory – bloody or otherwise resembling gore (generally, separated body parts!) – It was a gory crime scene, enough to make you vomit.
grim – very unpleasant – I had a grim feeling that we were being watched.
grisly – horrible – He had a grisly scar across his face.
gruesome – horrible or disgusting – Her gruesome hair had not been washed for many weeks.
hair-raising – extremely scary (enough to make your hair stand up!) – The car crash was a hair-raising experience.
haunted – possessed by evil spirits – There are twenty eight ghosts living in that haunted house.
horrible/horrific – extremely nasty – What a horrible story!
macabre – horrible, and/or related to death – We stopped talking about the macabre topic of his funeral.
moonlit – illuminated by the moon – It was a moonlit graveyard, where they first met.
morbid – horrible, and/or related to disease – There was a morbid atmosphere to the abandoned clinic.
mysterious – unknown – She had a mysterious backpack…what was in it?
nightmarish – extremely horrible, of nightmares – I had a nightmarish journey through the unlit alleyways.
otherworldly – not of this world, unrecognisable – The otherworldly sounds continued outside the window.
petrifying – scary enough to stop you from moving – The cat has a petrifying look in its eyes.
repulsive/revolting – disgusting (enough to make you turn away!) – Excuse me, I must leave – your breath is repulsive.
scary – frightening – There are a scary number of words for frightening things.
scream – very loud, high-pitched shout – She screamed at the sight of the spider.
shocking – extremely alarming and surprising, in a bad way – They got a shocking result in their exams.
sinister – threatening or foreboding (bad things to come!) – There is a sinister man lurking by the entrance.
spooky – scary, relating to ghosts – That old statue is rather spooky.
supernatural – beyond natural, unexplainable forces – She had a supernatural knack of guessing when anyone was lying.
terrible – extremely bad – I had a terrible feeling that I left my book at home.
thrilling – shocking, though sometimes exciting – We had a thrilling time in the haunted house.
unnerving – very worrying – I saw an unnerving stray dog hanging around in the shadows.
wicked – evil – He hatched a wicked plan to kidnap all the children in France.