What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Thrill vs Arousal - What's the difference?

thrill | arousal |

As nouns the difference between thrill and arousal

is that thrill is a trembling or quivering, especially one caused by emotion while arousal is the act of arousing or the state of being aroused.

As a verb thrill

is to suddenly excite someone, or to give someone great pleasure; to (figuratively) electrify; to experience such a sensation.

thrill

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (ergative) To suddenly excite someone, or to give someone great pleasure; to (figuratively) electrify; to experience such a sensation.
  • * 1937 , Frank Churchill and Leigh Harline, “One Song”, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , Walt Disney:
  • One love / That has possessed me; / One love / Thrilling me through
  • * M. Arnold
  • vivid and picturesque turns of expression which thrill the reader with sudden delight
  • * Spenser
  • The cruel word her tender heart so thrilled , / That sudden cold did run through every vein.
  • (ergative) To (cause something to) tremble or quiver.
  • (obsolete) To perforate by a pointed instrument; to bore; to transfix; to drill.
  • * Spenser
  • He pierced through his chafed chest / With thrilling point of deadly iron brand.
  • (obsolete) To hurl; to throw; to cast.
  • * Heywood
  • I'll thrill my javelin.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A trembling or quivering, especially one caused by emotion.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill .}}
  • A cause of sudden excitement; a kick.
  • (medicine) A slight quivering of the heart that accompanies a cardiac murmur.
  • A breathing place or hole; a nostril, as of a bird.
  • Derived terms

    * cheap thrill * thrill kill / thrill killing * thrill killer * thrilly

    arousal

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of arousing or the state of being aroused.
  • bodily arousal
    emotional arousal
    to influence the arousal of brain and behavior
  • Sexual arousal.
  • Some people get sexual arousal from the depiction of feet.
  • A physiological and psychological state of being awake or reactive to stimuli, including elevated heart rate and blood pressure and a condition of sensory alertness, mobility and readiness to respond.
  • * 2003 , Jinhee Choi, "Fits and Startles: Cognitivism Revisited," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism , vol. 61, no. 2 (Spring), p. 152,
  • Subjects report the physiological arousals induced by adrenaline and placebo differently.
  • Arousal from sleep or hibernation.
  • the mechanism for arousal from sleep
    the animal undergoes regular spells of arousal

    Synonyms

    * horniness