"jump scare" meaning in English

See jump scare in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-jump scare.wav Forms: jump scares [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} jump scare (plural jump scares)
  1. (narratology) The technique, typically used in horror films and video games, of having something occur suddenly and without warning to frighten the audience. Categories (topical): Narratology, Horror Translations (a technique to suddenly scare the audience): säikäytys (Finnish), jump scare (French), скример (skrimer) [masculine] (Russian), susto repentino [masculine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-jump_scare-en-noun-Yo8uYTGb Disambiguation of Horror: 47 53 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 2 entries, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with Russian translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 64 36 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 64 36 Disambiguation of Pages with 2 entries: 65 35 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 65 35 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 57 43 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 66 34 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 67 33 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 65 35 Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, narratology, sciences

Verb

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-jump scare.wav Forms: jump scares [present, singular, third-person], jump scaring [participle, present], jump scared [participle, past], jump scared [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb}} jump scare (third-person singular simple present jump scares, present participle jump scaring, simple past and past participle jump scared)
  1. (transitive) To frighten (a film audience or video game player, etc.) by means of something that happens suddenly without warning. Tags: transitive Categories (topical): Film, Horror, Video games Synonyms: jump-scare, jumpscare
    Sense id: en-jump_scare-en-verb-LnZaJxui Disambiguation of Film: 18 82 Disambiguation of Horror: 47 53 Disambiguation of Video games: 44 56

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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          "ref": "2011, John Rosenberg, The Healthy Edit: Creative Techniques for Perfecting Your Movie, Focal Press, →ISBN, pages 80–81:",
          "text": "Drag Me to Hell capitalizes on the jump scare, scattering it liberally throughout the film to the point where it becomes almost numbing.",
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          "ref": "2013, Jeffrey Bullins, “Hearing the Game: Sound Design”, in James Aston, editor, To See the Saw Movies: Essays on Torture Porn and Post-9/11 Horror, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 188:",
          "text": "This quiet is broken suddenly with an initial jump scare of the puppet's iconic laughter.",
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        "(narratology) The technique, typically used in horror films and video games, of having something occur suddenly and without warning to frighten the audience."
      ],
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          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "a technique to suddenly scare the audience",
          "word": "säikäytys"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "a technique to suddenly scare the audience",
          "word": "jump scare"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "skrimer",
          "sense": "a technique to suddenly scare the audience",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "скример"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "a technique to suddenly scare the audience",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "susto repentino"
        }
      ]
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        "(transitive) To frighten (a film audience or video game player, etc.) by means of something that happens suddenly without warning."
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    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "a technique to suddenly scare the audience",
      "word": "säikäytys"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
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      "sense": "a technique to suddenly scare the audience",
      "word": "jump scare"
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      "sense": "a technique to suddenly scare the audience",
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      ],
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    },
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      "sense": "a technique to suddenly scare the audience",
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      "word": "susto repentino"
    }
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  "word": "jump scare"
}

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        "To frighten (a film audience or video game player, etc.) by means of something that happens suddenly without warning."
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Download raw JSONL data for jump scare meaning in English (5.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (9a96ef4 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.