HAIR-RAISER Synonyms: 8 Similar and Opposite Words

hair-raiser

noun

ˈher-ˌrā-zər

as in thriller

something (as a close contest) that induces much suspense as to its outcome since they had been dating for five years, her answer to his proposal wasn't exactly a hair-raiser

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of hair-raiser In Hokum, the Cork native transports viewers to Ireland’s remote and possibly haunted Bilberry Woods Hotel alongside prickly American author Ohm Baumann (Adam Scott) for a good ol' fashioned hair-raiser of a ghost story. —

Megan McCluskey, Time, 4 May 2026 The streamer has a deep bench of horror films from all eras of cinema among its offerings, from influential classics like Nosferatu (1922) to newer hair-raisers like Possessor (2020), and all kinds of thrillers and chillers in between. —

Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Jan. 2026 And the Halloween-eve hair-raiser adds a cackling skeleton to a horror arcade of ghoulish news for EVs. —

Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2023

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hair-raiser

thriller

Noun

Thus Director Park will likely be mulling over the sprawling monster sci-fi Hope, by his countryman Na Hong-Jin, and possibly Léa Mysius’s thriller-romp The Birthday Party, which contains a lot of Park’s trademark black humor.

— Damon Wise, Deadline, 23 May 2026
His new movie, about a wealthy Moscow family, is both an erotic thriller and an indictment of amoral oligarchy detached from the war with Ukraine.

— Film Editor, Los Angeles Times, 23 May 2026