Afraid is an adjective meaning feeling fear or anxiety about something likely to happen or that has happened. It often describes a temporary emotional state rather than a permanent trait, and can modify nouns or function in constructions like 'afraid to' or 'afraid of' to express caution or trepidation in response to risk or uncertainty.
US: nucleus vowel /ə/ is reduced; /ˈfreɪd/ is prominent; keep /d/ crisp. UK: non-rhotic; avoid linking r; slight shorter /ə/. AU: similar to US; keep the /ə/ light and /eɪ/ distinct; maintain relaxed jaw for /ə/. IPA references: /əˈfreɪd/.
"She’s afraid of spiders and avoids the basement."
"I’m afraid I can’t attend the meeting tomorrow."
"He looked afraid when the door creaked open."
"They were afraid to speak up during the presentation."
Afraid derives from the Middle English phrase a-fraiden, from a- (an intensifying prefix) + fraiden, meaning to fear. The root fraid traces back to Old English gefræġod (to fear, to terrify) and Proto-Germanic *fraigjanan, from Proto-Indo-European *prə- meaning forward, forth, plus a root related to fear. By the 14th century, afraid appeared as a participial adjective describing a state of fear, evolving into the modern sense of feeling fear in the present moment. The prefix a- in combination with the verb form signaled a state resulting from an action (to frighten). Over time, the usage broadened to describe both immediate fear and a general sense of anxiety about future events. In contemporary English, afraid often appears with prepositions (afraid of, afraid to) and can function both attributively and predicatively, maintaining its core sense of apprehension or dread in varying contexts.
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Words that rhyme with "Afraid"
-aid sounds
-ade sounds
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Afraid is pronounced /əˈfreɪd/ in US/UK/AU. The initial syllable is a schwa /ə/, followed by a stressed diphthong /eɪ/ in the second syllable, and ends with /d/. Your mouth starts relaxed, the tongue lowers for /ə/, then closes slightly and glides to a mid-high front position for /eɪ/ as in 'say', and finishes with a clear /d/. Keep the /r/ silent in non-rhotic accents before the vowel; in rhotic accents you may feel a light rhotic quality preceding the /eɪ/ depending on the speaker. A crisp /d/ at the end sharpens the word.
Common mistakes include misplacing the stress (trying /ə-FRAYD/ with wrong emphasis) and shortening the /eɪ/ to a simple /e/ or /ɛ/. Some learners insert extra consonants (like /fraid/ with no initial schwa) or elongate the vowel (/'əːfreɪd/). To correct: ensure the second syllable carries primary stress /ˈfreɪd/ while the first is a quick schwa /ə/. Maintain a clean /d/ at the end and avoid adding a strong 'r' sound in non-rhotic speech.
In US/UK/AU, the core /əˈfreɪd/ remains, with minor rhotic variation. US and AU generally are non-rhotic before a consonant, but may voice the /r/ in careful speech; the /ə/ remains schwa. UK tends to be more clipped, with a shorter /ə/ before /ɡ/ integration where applicable. Vowel quality in /eɪ/ can be slightly tenser in American speech. Australian English typically maintains a clear /ɪ/ onset in fast speech sometimes, but /ə/ remains. Overall, the main difference is the prosody and the subtle vowel timing, not the core phonemes.
The difficulty comes from the two-syllable structure with a distinct stress pattern: schwa + stressed diphthong. The /ə/ is unstressed and quick, followed by /ˈfreɪd/ where the diphthong /eɪ/ requires precise mouth shape—gliding from mid to high front with lip rounding that you can feel in the corners of your mouth. The final /d/ must be crisp. For non-native ears, blending the two syllables smoothly without an intrusive vowel can be tricky, and many learners overly delay the /r/ or misplace it in rhotic contexts.
A common nuance is the subtle linking in natural speech: in connected speech, speakers may reduce the first syllable further when saying 'I’m afraid', leading to /əˈfreɪd/ with a fast, almost imperceptible boundary. The second syllable’s /reɪ/ maintains the glide, and the /d/ lands with a dental closure. In careful pronunciation, you can isolate the /ə/ and /freɪd/ blocks to feel the mouth positions before blending into natural speech.
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