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Eerie vs Gaunt - What's the difference?

eerie | gaunt |

As adjectives the difference between eerie and gaunt

is that eerie is strange, weird, fear-inspiring while gaunt is lean, angular and bony.

eerie

English

Alternative forms

* eery

Adjective

(er)
  • strange, weird, fear-inspiring.
    • The eerie sounds seemed to come from the graveyard after midnight.
  • (Scotland) fearful, timid.
  • * 1883 , George MacDonald, Donal Grant
    • She began to feel eerie .

    Synonyms

    * See also * creepy, spooky

    Derived terms

    * eerily (adverb) * eeriness (noun) * eerisome

    gaunt

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) * (l) (Scotland)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • lean, angular and bony
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1894 , author=Joseph Jacobs , title=The Fables of Aesop , chapter=1 citation , passage=A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by.}}
  • haggard, drawn and emaciated
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1917 , author=Arthur Conan Doyle , title=His Last Bow , chapter=5 citation , passage=In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt , wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart.}}
  • bleak, barren and desolate
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1908 , author=William Hope Hodgson , title=The House on the Borderland , chapter=14 citation , passage=Behind me, rose up, to an extraordinary height, gaunt , black cliffs. }}

    Synonyms

    * scraggy, scrawny, skinny