What does petrified mean?
Word: Petrified
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Petrified means so frightened that you cannot move; also, of wood or bones, slowly turned into stone.
Synonyms: terrified, horrified, frozen
Antonyms: fearless
How do you spell petrified?
Syllables: pet - ri - fied
Tricky part: The y of petrify changes to i before ed, and the vowel after petr is i, so it is never petrafied.
Watch out for: pettrified, petrafied, petrifyed
Memory tip: Petr is the Greek petra, rock, which is also in petrol (rock oil). A petrified person stands as still as a rock.
Petrified in a sentence
Example 1: The little boy was petrified when the lights went out during the storm.
Example 2: Scientists found a petrified tree trunk that was millions of years old.
Example 3: I was petrified of the big slide until my cousin went down first.
Fun Fact
Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, USA, holds fallen logs from trees that lived more than 200 million years ago and slowly turned to stone.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word petrified as it is used in the sentence:
Sunil was petrified the first time he stood on stage to sing at the school assembly.
a) alarmed
b) shaken
c) calm
d) startled
Show answer
c) calm. A calm person feels no fear; alarmed, shaken and startled are all kinds of fright.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
petriffied
a) i
b) r
c) e
d) f
Show answer
d) f. Petrify has one f, and changing the y to i does not double it.
Spell-o-Spell
Three of these words are spelt correctly and one is misspelt. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. archiology 2. skeleton 3. petrified 4. fossil
a) turned to stone, or too scared to move
b) the frame of bones inside a body
c) the study of the past through objects dug from the ground
d) the remains of an ancient plant or animal kept in rock
Show answer
c) the study of the past through objects dug from the ground. Archiology is the slip: in British spelling the word is archaeology, with ae after arch.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
The guide showed us a log so old that it had become epftiried and felt as hard as rock.
a) prettified
b) petrified
c) pacified
d) purified
Show answer
b) petrified. Purified and pacified are too short and prettified has two t's; only petrified uses all nine letters.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these feelings is closest to being petrified?
a) relief
b) terror
c) boredom
d) pride
Show answer
b) terror
2. In which sentence does petrified mean very frightened?
a) The museum shows petrified bones.
b) The petrified log lay in the desert.
c) Ravi was petrified of the barking dog.
d) Petrified wood can be polished.
Show answer
c) Ravi was petrified of the barking dog.
