Horror vocabulary or scary words plays an important role in a horror story. Without perfect horror vocabulary, any horror story will sound dull and will give a bad reading experience for readers who have bought your book not just to put it on their shelves but to get terrified the hell out of their souls.
Related: 101 Scary Story Ideas
Our list of scary words is specifically compiled to help you in writing your terrifying tale and you can also use these scary words to brainstorm a horror story idea for your creepy & spooky story.
Related: Fantasy Words List
Below is the list of common horror vocabulary words used in a scary story. Remember that in this list the perception of some of the words as ”scary” can very if used outside horror writing.
Scary Words List (Horror Vocabulary)-
Scary Words That Start With ‘A’
Abandoned
Afraid
Agonizing
Alarming
Appalling
Apparition
Ashes
Awful
Scary Words That Start With ‘B’
Beastly
Bizarre
Black cat
Black magic
Blood-curdling
Bogeyman
Bone-chilling
Buried
Burial
Scary Words That Start With ‘C’
Cackle
Casket
Castle
Cemetery
Chilling
Claustrophobic
Coffin
Conjure
Corpse
Creaky
Creeped out
Creepy
Crypt
Cursed
Scary Words That Start With ‘D’
Dark dead
Dark-some
Daunting
Deathly
Deathlike
Decomposed
Deformity
Demon
Demonic
Devil
Dire
Disappeared
Disgusting
Dismay
Disquieting
Distressing
Disturbing
Dreaded
Dreadful
Drip
Scary Words That Start With ‘E’
Eerie
Enchanted
Entity
Evil
Evil doll
Eyeballs
Exorcism
Scary Words That Start With ‘F’
Fearful
Fearsome
Flesh
Freaked
Freaky
Frightening
Frightful
Funeral
Scary Words That Start With ‘G’
Ghastly
Ghost
Ghostlike
Ghostly
Ghoulish
Gloomy
Goosebumps
Gory
Gothic
Grave
Gravestone
Graveyard
Grim
Grisly
Gross
Gruesome
Scary Words That Start With ‘H’
Hallucinate
Hang
Harrowing
Haunt
Haunted
Haunting
Heart-pouncing
Heart-stopping
Heinous
Hellish
Hideous
Horrendous
Horrible
Horrid
Horrific
Horrifying
Horror-stricken
Hounds
Howling
Scary Words That Start With ‘I’
Infested
Insane
Intimidating
Scary Words That Start With ‘L’
Levitating
Loathsome
Lurid
Lurking
Scary Words That Start With ‘M’
Macabre
Maleficent
Maniacal
Menacing
Midnight
Monstrous
Morbid
Murky
Mysterious
Scary Words That Start With ‘N’
Nasty
Nerve-wracking
Nightmare
Nightmarish
Numb
Scary Words That Start With ‘O’
Obnoxious
Occult
Omen
Ominous
Oozing
Scary Words That Start With ‘P’
Panic
Paranormal
Peculiar
Perilous
Petrified
Phantasm
Phantom
Possessed
Presence
Priest
Scary Words That Start With ‘S’
Satanic
Scar
Scream
Shadowy
Shaking
Shivery
Shocking
Shudder
Sinister
Skeleton
Skull
Slashed
Slimy
Smoke
Specter
Spiderweb
Spine-chilling
Spine-tingling
Spirit
Spooky
Startling
Strange
Succumbed
Summoned
Supernatural
Superstition
Scary Words That Start With ‘T’
Tentacles
Terrified
Terror
Terror-stricken
Terrorized
Threatening
Tortured
Tormented
Traumatic
Trapped
Twilight
Scary Words That Start With ‘U’
Ugly
Uncanny
Unearthly
Unholy
Unnerved
Unsettling
Scary Words That Start With ‘V’
Vampire
Vanish
Vengeance
Vulnerable
Scary Words That Start With ‘W’
Wailing
Weeping
Weird
Whispered
Wicked
Witch
Witchcraft
Worrisome
Wraith
Related: Mystery Words List
These are the best and essential scary words that have been collected from famous horror storybooks and using these terrifying vocabularies in your horror story will help you to properly set the horror and terrifying ecosystem in your story which will give the reader a great horror reading experience.
