jumpscare

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A form of jump scare — A sudden, unexpected and startling event in media designed to frighten the audience.

Scrabble 22

Meanings

nounjumpscare (plural jumpscares)

plural jumpscares

  1. alternativeAlternative form of jump scare.

    Do you like jumpscares? Well then, here's your movie!

    2011, Justin Mancini, "'Paranormal Activity 3' delivers more of the same scares", The Signal (College of New Jersey), Volume 135, Number 8, 20 October 2011, page 21
    2 more examples

    I sit shaking in fear and shock from the horrible jumpscare.

    2011 January 27, [ste parker], “Re: BA Alan Wake”, in uk.games.video.misc (Usenet)

    It seemed that for every legitimate moment of tension and terror caused by Wan's brilliant style of camerawork (of which there surprisingly weren't many), there was a cheap jumpscare that just made you think: “Did they really just do that to me?”

    2013, Patrick Shanahan, "Insidious Chapter 2 Falls Flat", The Record (Saint Louis Priory School), Volume 44, Issue 5, 27 September 2013, page 6
verbjumpscare (third-person singular simple present jumpscares, present participle jumpscaring, simple past and past participle jumpscared)

present singular third person jumpscares · participle present jumpscaring · participle past jumpscared · past jumpscared

  1. alternativeAlternative form of jump scare.

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

jumpscare. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jumpscare

MLA

“jumpscare.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jumpscare. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “jumpscare,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jumpscare.

Source: jumpscare on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.