panic
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: noun/1
These words all describe being afraid, but differ in intensity, suddenness, and what triggers them. 'Fear' is the broadest and most neutral — it can be mild or strong, brief or long-lasting, and often has a clear cause (fear of snakes, fear of failure). 'Panic' is sudden and overwhelming, and it usually stops the person from thinking clearly: you panic, then act without planning. 'Alarm' is lighter and more controlled — a quick spike of worry on hearing surprising news, but you can still respond sensibly. 'Terror' is far stronger than panic, suggesting deep, paralysing fear, often of physical danger. 'Dread' is slow, heavy fear about something you expect to happen later, like dread before a difficult meeting. Compare: 'Marcus felt fear before the exam' (steady worry), 'Marcus felt alarm when the lights flickered' (mild surprise), 'Marcus panicked when the alarm sounded' (sudden, action-stopping).
Common collocations
Nouns
- panic attack
- panic button
- panic buying
- panic selling
- panic room
- wave of panic
- moment of panic
Phrases
- don't panic
- no need to panic
- spread panic
- cause panic
- in blind panic
Prepositions
- in panic
- in a panic
- panic about
- panic over
- panic among
Etymology
Panic comes from the name of Pan, the ancient Greek god of forests and wild places. People believed Pan could send sudden, mysterious fear into shepherds and travellers passing through lonely woods at night, and they called this kind of fear 'panic fear' (Greek: panikos, 'of Pan'). The phrase travelled through Latin and French into English in the late 1500s, first as an adjective meaning 'caused by Pan'. By the 1600s, English speakers began using 'panic' on its own as a noun for any sudden uncontrolled fear, and from the 1800s also as a verb. The modern senses — feeling sudden terror, or causing a crowd to do so — keep the original idea of fear that comes out of nowhere and breaks calm thinking.