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Scary vs Threatening - What's the difference?

scary | threatening |

As adjectives the difference between scary and threatening

is that scary is causing or able to cause fright while threatening is presenting a threat; menacing; frightening.

As nouns the difference between scary and threatening

is that scary is barren land having only a thin coat of grass while threatening is an act of threatening; a threat.

As a verb threatening is

.

scary

English

Etymology 1

Adjective

(er)
  • Causing or able to cause fright
    • The tiger's jaws were scary.
    She was hiding behind her pillow during the scary parts of the film.
  • (US, colloquial, dated) Subject to sudden alarm; nervous, jumpy.
    • (Whittier)
  • * 1916 , Texas Department of Agriculture, Bulletin (issues 47-57), page 150:
    • And let us say to these interests that, until the Buy-It-Made-In-Texas movement co-operates with the farmers, we are going to be a little scary of the snare.
    Synonyms
    * (causing fright) frightening

    Etymology 2

    From dialectal English .

    Noun

  • Barren land having only a thin coat of grass.

    • Anagrams

    * *

    threatening

    English

    Alternative forms

    * threatning (obsolete)

    Verb

    (head)

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Presenting a threat; menacing; frightening.

    • Derived terms

    * life-threatening * nonthreatening, non-threatening * threateningly * threateningness * unthreatening

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of threatening; a threat.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts IV:
    • And nowe lorde beholde their threatenynges , and graunte unto thy servauntes wyth all confydence to speake thy worde.
  • * Charles Dickens, Pincher Astray
    • The butcher's boy — a fierce and beefy youth, who openly defied the dog, and waved him off with hurlings of his basket and threatenings of his feet, accompanied by growls of "Git out, yer beast!" — now entered silently