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eerie

[eer-ee] / ˈɪər i /


Frequently Asked Questions

What is another word for eerie?
Probably the closest synonym for eerie is spooky. These words are usually used to describe an atmosphere or place that’s scary in a subtle way—not due to obvious danger but rather to a perceived uncanny quality that’s perhaps supernatural and sinister (evil). A classic example of a place described as eerie is a haunted house. Similar words include creepy, chilling, foreboding, menacing, and ominous. These all suggest a frightening quality, but, unlike eerie and spooky, don’t imply that there is anything otherworldly about it. You can describe an eerie place as giving you the creeps, creeping you out, or inspiring a sense of dread.  Sometimes the best way to indicate that a place is eerie is to show instead of tell: when describing it, instead of using the word eerie, describe the things that actually make it eerie, like the strange sounds coming from the attic and the painting of a girl whose eyes seem to follow you around the room.
What is another word for eerie silence?
An eerie silence is a silence that seems too quiet—one that suggests something bad is going to happen. An eerie silence isn’t necessarily entirely silent—the breeze might be blowing in the background, for example—but it is lacking some of the sounds you might expect to hear normally. A forest without any birds singing (at a time when they normally would be) might be described as eerily silent. Words to describe an eerie silence include strange and unnatural.
What is the opposite (antonym) of eerie?
Eerie describes things that are subtly frightening due to seeming strange or unnatural. The opposite of an eerie atmosphere is one that’s familiar or ordinary in a way that’s comforting, welcoming, calming, or reassuring.
Is it eerie or eery?
It can be spelled either way, but eerie is much more common.
How do you use eerie in a sentence?
Eerie is used to suggest unnaturalness and creepiness. Here are some examples of eerie in a sentence:
  • The house was so eerie once we’d moved all our stuff out—like it was a different place altogether. 
  • At dawn, there was an eerie silence over the lake, and the strange mist made it even eerier. 
  • Walking among the mannequins in the abandoned department was too eerie for me.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The South later resumed border loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in six years, including K-pop and international news, while the North began transmitting strange, eerie sounds across the frontier, unsettling South Korean residents.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026

Her statements always seemed misaligned with the evidence, as if she were so convinced of her company’s virtue that she didn’t care about the eerie dissonance between her reality and the world’s.

From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026

And there was an eerie atmosphere with fewer than 4,000 fans in the 26,000-capacity stadium in Heraklion, Crete.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

Kent turned to illustrator Alex Juhasz to create the handmade book, drawing inspiration from the eerie silhouetted animation of German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger from the 1920s.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

A beautiful theory will be simple, compact, and spare; it will give a sense of completeness and often an eerie sense of symmetry.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Schlossberg, we should mention here, is Kennedy’s cousin once removed, which adds an even eerier aura to the story.

From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2024

Filmed by director of photography Bojan Bazelli, “The Ring” adopts an unnatural greenish-turquoise-cyan hue that makes Seattle and the apartment complex appear eerier than its real-life counterpart between First Avenue, Seneca Street and Western Avenue.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2022

Even eerier was the lead story, about Adolf Hitler and the rise of his Third Reich.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 26, 2021

The one-set naturalistic drama and the flat-out comedy are mostly not represented, each having evolved into something eerier and more conceptual.

From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2018

The house seemed eerier than ever, full of subdued complaints and whisperings.

From Gone to Earth by Mary Gladys Meredith Webb

With worries about the spread of gun ownership in his head, Fogerty devised one of his eeriest productions for this swampy psych-rock number.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2025

In The Times of London, Fisher wrote that Hrusa’s conducting of “Lohengrin” “cannily distills the eeriest sonorities of the score, highlighting its bleak beauty.”

From New York Times ● Oct. 18, 2022

Otherwise, the town’s eeriest feature is its isolation.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 27, 2022

Plenty has been written about no crowds in sporting stadiums, but a Wales and England encounter in the Six Nations presented perhaps the eeriest atmosphere yet.

From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2021

The eeriest thing was a sound like thunder that rolled across the water.

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan


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