Hey, everyone.
Well, as you can see behind me,
everything looks quite scary, doesn't it?
You see a bat flying, you
see everything, like, very terrifying.
Well, you may think that the words related to
being scary are simply terrified, frightened, or scared.
But let me tell you that there are
so many words that can replace these boring
words when you feel scared or frightened.
Look at me, I'm using the same words, right?
So in today's lesson, we will look at some
really amazing vocabulary, in fact, advanced English vocabulary to
talk about words or any kind of feelings or
experiences which really scare you, okay?
But we will not use the word scary.
So let's look at the first word, which is ghoulish.
Well, what does this word really mean?
Well, this word is actually an Arabic word.
This is an English word, but it was
derived from the Arabic word called goal.
And this word was used in order to come
up with the English word which is ghoulish.
And this word means that we are talking
about a demon being a sort of a
demon or this devilish supernatural being.
And when someone looks scary, you can also call
them ghoulish, but make sure that they are scary
enough in order to call them ghoulish
In a sentence, I would say her Instagram
pictures looked pretty ghoulish in that makeup.
Now, during Halloween, I'm sure a lot of you tend
to post pictures where you look a little bit scary.
In fact, very scary.
But this time, don't use the word scary.
Simply say, oh, we posted pictures
where we looked pretty ghoulish.
Well, that's a cool word, isn't it?
Let's move on to another word.
Well, this time around, I'm going to
give you a word called macabre.
Macabre.
Okay, let's break this word.
It is ma.
Just ma.
Don't say ma, even though there is an A.
Then you say a car.
Car.
And then bra.
Okay, so that's macabre.
Now, this word has actually been
taken out of a French word.
Isn't it great that our English language derives words
from so many other places in the world?
So this word has been taken out of a
French word, which is also called macabre, which actually
represents something related to violence and death.
Okay, so how can I use this word?
Now, in a sentence, I have
come up with something like this.
The Holocaust is still the most macabre
of crimes ever committed in history.
Now, if you've read history books, there was a
period in time called the Holocaust during the Second
World War when Nazi Germany killed several people
from a certain community, especially the Jews.
And that is what the Holocaust is.
And to date, up until now, it has been known to
be the most macabre of crimes, which means it is something
that represents so much violence, so much death.
Okay, that's the word.
So next time when you're watching a horror
movie, or anything scary like a murder mystery.
Now you have a new word, so go ahead and use it.
Another word lurking.
Now, as you can see, this word has got the ing form,
so you can probably tell it's a verb, it's an action.
But what is this action referring to?
How is it scary?
Let's take a look.
It is scary because it refers to a person,
or anybody for that matter, even an animal, who
is hiding and waiting in the dark to attack.
Now, a lot of times when we are in the
dark, we sort of feel like there's somebody around hiding.
Sometimes it's our imagination.
But what is the word we are going to use?
Now, we won't say someone is
hiding and waiting to attack.
We'll simply say that they are lurking.
So my sentence goes like this.
She hid under the stairs when she sensed
that someone was lurking in the hallway.
Well, obviously she was frightened. Why?
Because somebody was lurking, hiding
and waiting to attack her.
Okay, this is how you can actually describe a movie where
you feel like you want to talk about a scene, but
use a better word, and that's the word you can use.
Let's see another word, disquieting.
Now, have you noticed this word has
got the word quiet in it?
Interesting, right?
Well, there is a reason why the
word quiet is there within this word.
Let's have a look.
It is a disturbing feeling that leads to intense fear.
So sometimes when you feel disturbed in your mind
and suddenly that disturbed fear grows and grows and
grows until it leads to a lot of fear.
That feeling, nobody has been able to describe
it in words, but now you do.
It's called the feeling of disquieting.
It's a disquieting feeling. Okay?
In a sentence I could say, even though
she was all alone, she had this disquieting
feeling that she was being watched.
A lot of times we get a
little bit scared when we are alone.
There is a reason for that
because we have a disquieting feeling.
A feeling that everything is quiet around us.
That's why the word quiet.
But yet something or someone is there around us.
And that's not a great feeling, right?
It's a feeling that can definitely make
you quite terrified, and that's being disquieting.
Okay, let's look at another word.
Blood curdling.
Okay, now, the word blood itself seems to
be quite gory, but what is blood curdling?
Let's take a look.
This word refers to an experience that you
want to describe which arouses terror and fear
anything which makes you intensely afraid.
You will call it blood curdling. Okay?
In fact, it is called blood curdling because people say
that when you get scared, your blood sort of freezes.
Your blood becomes really cold, you freeze on
the spot and therefore it's called blood curdling.
In a sentence, I could say, I heard a blood curdling howl
as we were camping in the woods in the night, when you
go to these areas where there are a lot of jungles and
forests, a lot of animals, let out a big howl.
And the howl can be quite terrifying, right?
But now, don't say the word terrifying.
Simply say that it was a blood curdling howl, okay?
Or somebody may have let out a blood curdling scream.
You've heard that, right? What is that?
Something which arouses a lot of fear and terror.
That's blood curdling for you.
Let's go to the next word which is cackle.
Remember, this is not crackle, but
this is cackle without the r.
Okay, without the r, what does it mean?
Now, this refers to a laugh, but not a nice laugh.
This is a laugh which can be
very harsh and it sounds very threatening.
This laugh shows that the person who is
actually laughing has a lot of hatred.
It is not a laughter which
comes out of good intentions.
It is a laughter which shows that the person has
got an ill feeling or an ill intention toward you.
So in a sentence, you could say, the
movie villain let out a menacing cackle as
he prepared to carry out his evil plan.
I'm sure you've watched movies where the bad guy or
the villain always wanted to carry out this really evil
plan, maybe to destroy the world or kill someone.
And before he gets onto his plan, what does he do?
He kind of starts laughing, right?
Is that a nice laugh?
No, it is a cackle.
It's menacing. Okay?
It's a threatening laugh.
Menacing means threatening.
So it is a laugh which shows that he's
full of hatred and he wants to destroy you. Okay?
Not a nice laugh.
Okay, let's have a look at
another word which is decapitated. Okay?
Now, the word capitated, okay?
Cap refers to head, right?
When we use the word capitate,
it refers to the head area.
And therefore the word decapitated refers to a man
or an animal that has its head cut off. Okay?
A lot of people use the word headless, right?
The headless man, when they talk about scary
things, but don't use the word headless anymore.
That's basic English.
Simply say decapitated in a sentence.
You could say the witnesses reported a
decapitated man lying by the train tracks.
Obviously, we're talking about a man who probably had
a very tragic accident at the train tracks.
He was obviously, evidently decapitated, which
means he was without his head.
A very terrifying sight, right?
But that's what happened.
He was decapitated.
One more word for you, which is levitate.
Now, a lot of you may not have
heard this word, but levitate means that you're
referring to anything which is rising and hovering.
Hovering means staying on the air by magical powers.
Like, imagine if something is in your house and just
in the air, just floating by itself in the air.
You'll be scared, right?
That word is called levitate.
Now you have a word for it in a
sentence I could say, there was a movie where
a girl was levitating across the room.
It was a blood curdling sight.
Okay, well, the word we are
actually referring to is levitate. Okay?
But I also want to bring your attention to
this phrase we learned before, which is blood curdling,
because this sight of her levitating or floating in
the air made my blood curdle, which means it
aroused intense fear or intense terror inside of me.
Okay?
Levitate float across the air and blood curdling any
feeling which arises or arouses a lot of fear.
Our next word seance.
This is our last word for scary words, seance.
Now, a seance is actually a meeting.
Many people are gathered together and what do they do?
These people attempt crazy people, they attempt
to make contact with the dead.
No idea why, but this is a sea ant. It's a meeting.
All right?
So people call on the dead and probably
talk to them or I don't know what
they do, but that's a seance for you.
In a sentence you could say in the
movie, ron performed a seance with his friends.
He did it for fun, but he paid for it with his life.
You may have seen in movies these kind
of scenes where people call in the dead. What is that?
That's nothing but a seance.
Well, these words are what you can use
when you are referring to any sort of
scary experiences, any scary feelings, without necessarily sticking
with words like frightened, terrified, or scared.
Okay, well, drop in your comments and tell me
which word you have recently learned today and how
you're going to use it when describing these kind
of experiences with people around you.
I'll be back with some more lessons.
Until then, this is me saying,
keep learning and keep practising. Take care.