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Spook vs Scary - What's the difference?

spook | scary |

As nouns the difference between spook and scary

is that spook is a spirit returning to haunt a place while scary is barren land having only a thin coat of grass.

As a verb spook

is to scare or frighten.

As an adjective scary is

causing or able to cause fright.

spook

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A spirit returning to haunt a place.
  • The visit to the old cemetery brought scary visions of spooks and ghosts.
  • A ghost or an apparition.
  • The building was haunted by a couple of spooks .
  • A hobgoblin.
  • (espionage) A spy.
  • * 2009 , "Spies like them", BBC News Magazine (online), 24 July 2009:
  • From Ian Fleming to John Le Carre - authors have long been fascinated by the world of espionage. But, asks the BBC’s Gordon Corera, what do real life spooks make of fictional spies?
  • * 2012 , The Economist, Oct 13th 2012, Huawei and ZTE: Put on hold
  • The congressional study frets that Huawei’s and ZTE’s products could be used as Trojan horses by Chinese spooks .
  • A scare or fright.
  • The big spider gave me a spook .
  • (dated, pejorative) A black person.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To scare or frighten.
  • To startle or frighten an animal
  • The movement in the bushes spooked the deer and they ran.

    Derived terms

    * spookiness * spookish * spook out * spooky

    See also

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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

    * *