shriek C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary Also spelled shriekin US /ʃrik/ UK /ʃriːk/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 noun a shrill, piercing cry or sound A shriek of laughter rang out from the back of the room. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · a shrill, piercing cry or... screamscreechsquealyellwailsquawk ↔ Opposites whispermurmur Word family Derived forms shriekershrieking Related forms screechshrike Etymology AI details From Middle English shriken, schriken, of imitative origin, related to Old Norse skraekja ('to screech'); essentially echoic of the sharp cry it denotes. Topics General Vocabulary External links Google Images Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary # shriek **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /ʃrik/ **IPA (UK):** /ʃriːk/ ## Meanings 1. a shrill, piercing cry or sound ## Examples - A shriek of laughter rang out from the back of the room. ## Synonyms - scream - screech - squeal - yell - wail - squawk ## Antonyms - whisper - murmur ## Derived Forms - shrieker - shrieking ## Related Forms - screech - shrike ## Etymology From Middle English shriken, schriken, of imitative origin, related to Old Norse skraekja ('to screech'); essentially echoic of the sharp cry it denotes. ## AI Etymology Shriek comes from Middle English shriken, schriken, of imitative origin, related to Old Norse skraekja ('to screech'); essentially echoic of the sharp cry it denotes. Older glosses in the chain include "to screech", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, shriek is best read as borrowing and imitative formation, yielding an English noun and verb shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun and verb, with the sense "a shrill, piercing cry or sound". English derivatives include shrieker and shrieking; related forms include screech and shrike. The result is an English noun and verb whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning. ## Topics - General Vocabulary markdown