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Shriek vs Screechy - What's the difference?

shriek | screechy |

As a noun shriek

is a sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.

As a verb shriek

is to utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in a sudden fright, in horror or anguish.

As an adjective screechy is

describing a sound as resembling a screech, or given to screeching.

shriek

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.
  • * Dryden
  • Shrieks , clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 5
  • Sabor, the lioness, was a wise hunter. To one less wise the wild alarm of her fierce cry as she sprang would have seemed a foolish thing, for could she not more surely have fallen upon her victims had she but quietly leaped without that loud shriek ?
  • (UK) (slang) An exclamation mark.
  • Verb

  • To utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in a sudden fright, in horror or anguish.
  • * Shakespeare
  • It was the owl that shrieked .
  • * Dryden
  • At this she shrieked aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief.
  • To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
  • * Spenser
  • The ghostly owl, shrieking his baleful note.
  • * Moore
  • She shrieked his name to the dark woods.

    Anagrams

    * *

    screechy

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Describing a sound as resembling a screech, or given to screeching.
  • :She has a screechy voice that really grates on my nerves, like a dentist's drill.