Intense, overwhelming fear.
Intense, overwhelming fear — fear at its outermost pitch, so great it floods and overpowers the mind.
The high extreme of the intensity scale. It differs from panic in that its defining trait is sheer overpowering intensity rather than loss of reason or contagion, and it can be sustained where panic is a sudden burst. It exceeds fright (brief, startling) in depth and duration. Unlike horror, terror does not inherently include revulsion: in the classic Gothic distinction (Radcliffe, 1826) terror is the dread-and-anticipation that “expands the soul,” where horror is the revolted “sickening realization.” Also carries a strong political register (state terror; terrorism).
Intense, overwhelming fear — fear pushed to its very limit.
In Gothic aesthetics (Ann Radcliffe, 1826), terror is the dread that precedes the horrifying sight and “expands the soul.”
Violence or intimidation used to coerce, especially by a state or group.
From the French Revolution's Reign of Terror (1793–94); “terrorist” and “terrorism” (1795) originally referred to the Jacobins — i.e. state terror.
Early 15c. “something that intimidates, an object of fear,” from Latin terror “great fear, dread,” from terrere “to fill with fear, frighten,” from a PIE root meaning “to tremble.”
Shifted from “object/source of fear” (early 15c.) to the subjective emotion “fear so great as to overwhelm the mind” (c. 1500). Politically specialized via the Reign of Terror (in English from 1801), giving “terrorist” and “terrorism” (1795); “terror bombing” by 1941. The Gothic terror-vs-horror distinction dates from Radcliffe (1826).