Therefor, calling someone a coward would be considered an insult. While fearful might be used more to describe someone in a certain situation, cowardly would be more of a character trait–someone who is always easily scared. Not to be confused with fearsome, which is something that causes fear. This word is good for use in writing, but not necessarily in conversation, and certainly would not be very insulting. This is one of the most basic ways to talk about someone or something that is easily scared–they are literally full of fear, fearful. These terms are listed from most formal to least formal/vulgar 1. Remember, a rich vocabulary can greatly increase your perceived fluency, so learn and memorize several of these useful synonyms and your English will be that much more impressive. Be sure to pay attention to the etymology of some of these words.

It has developed from a complex history and the influence of many different languages. This got me thinking: In English, we have a ton of words, slang, and colloquialisms around calling someone cowardly.Īs I kept thinking of more and more terms for my student, I thought, “Hey, this would make a great article for the community.” So, here you have it, 50 ways to talk about someone’s cowardice.Īs you will see, many of these are words that we might call our siblings or close friends (jokingly of course).Įnglish is very rich, with one of the largest vocabularies of any language. The other day I was teaching a student and he was wondering what other ways he could say that someone was fearful, or a coward.

Synonyms for brave