Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Highly excited with strong emotion or frustration; frenzied: frantic with worry.
- adj. Characterized by rapid and disordered or nervous activity: made a frantic last-minute search for the lost key.
- adj. Archaic Mad; insane.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Mad; raving; wild; distracted: as, frantic with fear or grief.
- Characterized by violence and mental disorder; springing from madness or distraction.
- Synonyms Distracted, infuriate, frenzied, raging.
- n. A frenzied person; a madman.
- To run about frantically.
Wiktionary
- adj. Insane, mentally unstable.
- adj. In a state of panic, worry, frenzy or rush.
- adj. Extremely energetic
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Mad; raving; furious; violent; wild and disorderly; distracted.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. excessively agitated; distraught with fear or other violent emotion
- adj. marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin freneticus, Latin phreneticus or phreniticus, from Ancient Greek *φενητικός (phentikos), correctly *φρενιτικός (phrenitikos, “mad, suffering from inflammation of the brain”), from φρενῖτις (phrenitis, "inflammation of the brain"), from φρήν (phrēn, "the brain"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English frantik, from Old French frenetique, from Latin phrenēticus; see frenetic. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word frantic has appeared in 354 New York Times articles in the past year, including on Nov. 14 in "For a Homeless Child, a Long Ride to 4th Grade" by Emily Canal:”
“Holly figured it was Mia who else would? and there she was, her expression frantic, shivering in the morning chill in just a thin light blue hoodie and jeans.”
“Learn more about the word "frantic" and see usage examples across a range of subjects on the Vocabulary.com dictionary.”
“Alpha taster shouts [in frantic Shatner-esque desperation]:”
What's in a score? Audio from a tasting with Robert Parker | Dr Vino's wine blog
“After 18 months of sparring between the Tories and BBC executives over the level of the licence fee, the future funding of the corporation has been hammered out in frantic negotiations in little over three days, with the broadcaster coming off decidedly second best.”
The Guardian: BBC licence fee frozen at £145.50 for six years
“On either side of the steamer, rows of scows received the flying cargo, and on each of these scows a sweating mob of men charged the descending slings and heaved bales and boxes about in frantic search.”
“There would be a fleeting glimpse of the three men flinging water in frantic haste, when she would topple over and fall into the yawning valley, bow down and showing her full inside length to the stern upreared almost directly above the bow.”
“But things look different inside India, where technology companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars in frantic attempts to ensure that their profit-making machine keeps producing.”
India's Achilles Heel, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“As a couple of employees are filing into one of the elevators, another man rushes in frantic and scared out of his mind.”
“Back on the dry land she shook like a wet rat and went running in frantic circles.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘frantic’.
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 318 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Linda(G4)
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, annual, apparent, arena, arrest, ascend, assist and 126 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Antics
anticonvulsant, pedantic, unanticipated, atlantic, semantics, canticle, geanticline, manticore, anticyclone, antichrist, infanticide, antic and 44 more...
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"IC" ending words
pendantic, elastic, autistic, archiac, civic, eccentric, aspic, basic, caustic, acoustic, anemic, antic and 17 more...
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DesiluTrektionary
Wordie newbie/
Professional copy editorcraven, compassionate, trek, progressive, argyle, journalism, love, consciousness, effervescence, integrity, plop, noxious and 21 more...
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Neato Keen Words
My list of neato keen words.
fab, neato, keen, fantabulous, awesome, marvellous, hubba, yurt, kempt, effete, jumbo, italic and 2 more...
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Deadlinitis
How do approaching (or missed) deadlines make you feel?
entrained, untraveling, wordasphyxia, inspired, anxious, guilty, concentrated, panic, blackout, focused, insomnia, hunger and 17 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. II
cicurate, circumforaneous, codger, comiconomenclaturist, constable, contradistinction, contraindicated, counterpane, coxcomb, decalcomania, decanal, decoction and 307 more...
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My preparation
for GRE ofcourse
morbid, disparate, incipient, exonerate, engross, ebullient, predilection, propensity, allure, qualms, chastise, perpetuate and 111 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for frantic.

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