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For more information on panic, visit Britannica.com.

Sudden loss of public confidence in the financial markets, characterized by falling prices and business failures. Financial panics occurred at regular intervals in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

noun

1. Great agitation and anxiety caused by the expectation or the realization of danger: affright, alarm, apprehension, dread, fear, fearfulness, fright, funk, horror, terror, trepidation. Slang cold feet. Idioms: fear and trembling. See fear/courage.
2. Something or someone uproariously funny or absurd: absurdity. Informal hoot, joke, laugh, scream. Slang gas, howl, riot. Idioms: a laugh a minute. See laughter.

verb

To fill with fear: affright, alarm, frighten, scare, scarify², startle, terrify, terrorize. Archaic fright. Idioms: make one's blood run cold, make one's hair stand on end, scaresillystiff, scare the daylights out of. See fear/courage.

Definition: extreme distress
Antonyms: calm, collectedness, confidence, contentment, peace, security

v

Definition: become, make afraid or distressed
Antonyms: be calm, be content, relax

A sudden unreasoning and overwhelming fear or terror, often affecting a group. It may occur in a state of high anxiety.

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

• Weak, Fearful, or Anxious

For the psychological condition, see Panic attack.

For other uses, see Panic (disambiguation).

This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed facts are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008)

Bank run on the Seamen's Savings' Bank during the Panic of 1857.

Panic is a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reaction. Panic may occur singularly in individuals or manifest suddenly in large groups as mass panic (closely related to herd behavior).

The word panic derives from the Greek πανικός, "pertaining to shepherd god Pan", who took amusement from frightening herds of goats and sheep into sudden bursts of uncontrollable fear. The ancient Greeks credited the battle of Marathon's victory to Pan, using his name for the frenzied, frantic fear exhibited by the fleeing enemy soldiers.

Prehistoric men used mass panic as a technique when hunting animals, especially ruminants. Herds reacting to unusually strong sounds or unfamiliar visual effects were directed towards cliffs, where they eventually jumped to their deaths when cornered. Humans are also vulnerable to panic and it is often considered infectious, in the sense one person's panic may easily spread to other people nearby and soon the entire group acts irrationally, but people also have the ability to prevent and/or control their own and others' panic by disciplined thinking or training (such as disaster drills). Architects and city planners try to accommodate the symptoms of panic, such as herd behavior, during design and planning, often using simulations to determine the best way to lead people to a safe exit and prevent congestion (stampedes). The most effective methods are often non-intuitive. A tall column, approximately 1 ft (300 mm) in diameter, placed in front of the door exit at a precisely calculated distance, may speed up the evacuation of a large room by up to 30%, as the obstacle divides the congestion well ahead of the choke point.

An influential theoretical treatment of panic is found in Neil J. Smelser's, Theory of Collective Behavior. The science of panic management has found important practical applications in the armed forces and emergency services of the world.

Many highly publicized cases of deadly panic occurred during massive public events. The layout of Mecca was extensively redesigned by Saudi authorities in an attempt to eliminate frequent stampedes, which kill an average of 250 pilgrims every year.^[1] Football stadiums have seen deadly crowd rushes and stampedes, such as at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, England, in 1989 when 96 people were killed in a deadly crush.

See also

• Panic attack
• Anxiety
• Fight-or-flight response
• Angst
• Battle trance
• Collective behavior
• Collective identity
• Emotion
• Fear
• Hysteria
• Kernel panic
• Moral panic
• Financial panic
• Panic disorder

Footnotes

1. ^ Castelvecchi, Davide (2007-04-07), "Formula for Panic: Crowd-motion findings may prevent stampedes" (^{[dead link]} – ^{Scholar search}), Science News Online, http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070407/fob5.asp 

External links

Look up panic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Panic

• Panic! How it works and What To Do About It — by Bruce Tognazzini.
• "Panic: Myth or Reality?" — Professor Lee Clarke, Contexts Magazine, 2002. (Article available as PDF from Lee Clarke's website)
• Bruce Schneier on the Myth of Panic
• Human Thinking in terms of processing layers — by Roger Bourke White Jr..

v t e Emotions (list) Emotions Adoration Affection Agony Awe Amusement Anger Anguish Annoyance Anxiety Arousal Attraction Caring Compassion Contempt Contentment Defeat Dejection Depression Desire Despair Disappointment Disgust Ecstasy Embarrassment Empathy Enthrallment Enthusiasm Envy Euphoria Excitement Fear Frustration Grief Guilt Happiness Hatred Homesickness Hope Horror Hostility Humiliation Hysteria Infatuation Insecurity Insult Interest Irritation Isolation Jealousy Loneliness Longing Love Lust Melancholy Neglect Optimism Panic Passion Pity Pleasure Pride Rage Regret Rejection Remorse Resentment Sadness Sentimentality Shame Shock Sorrow Spite Suffering Surprise Sympathy Tenseness Thrill Revenge Wonder Worry Diligence Zest Worldviews Compatibilism Existentialism Fatalism Incompatibilism Metaphysics Nihilism Optimism Pessimism Reclusion Social justice Weltschmerz Source: Parrott, W. (2001), Emotions in Social Psychology, Psychology Press, Philadelphia.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - panik
v. tr. - fremkalde panik hos
v. intr. - blive grebet af panik

idioms:

• panic button    uforsigtig handling
• panic stations    katastrofestemning

2.
n. - hirse

Nederlands (Dutch)
paniek, zeer grappig iemand, in paniek raken/ brengen, op zijn kop zetten (publiek), panisch, betreffende de god Pan

Français (French)
1.
n. - panique, affolement
v. tr. - affoler, paniquer, semer la panique dans
v. intr. - s'affoler, paniquer

idioms:

• panic button    signal d'alarme
• panic stations    panique générale

2.
n. - céréales (du millet)

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Panik
v. - in Panik geraten, in Panik versetzen

idioms:

• panic button    Alarmknopf
• panic stations    Notzustand

2.
n. - Panik

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πανικός
v. - πανικοβάλλω/-ομαι
adj. - του πανικού, πανικός, του θεού Πάνα

idioms:

• panic button    κουμπί έκτακτης ανάγκης
• panic stations    κατάσταση έκτακτης ανάγκης

Italiano (Italian)
panico, allarmare, allarmarsi

idioms:

• panic button    pulsante di emergenza
• panic stations    stato di emergenza

Português (Portuguese)
n. - pânico (m)
v. - entrar em pânico
adj. - de emergência, sem fundamento, apavorado

idioms:

• panic button    botão de emergência
• panic stations    estação de emergência

Русский (Russian)
паника, паниковать, панический

idioms:

• panic button    аварийная кнопка
• panic stations    всеобщая паника

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - pánico, terror
v. tr. - aterrar, infundir pánico
v. intr. - aterrorizarse, aterrarse, ser presa del pánico

idioms:

• panic button    botón de alarma
• panic stations    cundió el pánico, estado de alarma

2.
n. - mijo, panizo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - panik, skräck
v. - råka i (gripas av) panik, sprida panik
adj. - panisk

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
恐慌, 惊惶, 惊慌的, 恐慌的, 没有理由的, 使恐慌, 使喝彩, 使大笑, 惊慌

idioms:

• panic button    紧急按钮
• panic stations    处于忙乱的状态

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 恐慌, 驚惶
adj. - 驚慌的, 恐慌的, 沒有理由的
v. tr. - 使恐慌, 使喝彩, 使大笑
v. intr. - 驚慌

idioms:

• panic button    緊急按鈕
• panic stations    處於忙亂的狀態

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 돌연한 공포, 공황, 아주 재미 있는 것
v. tr. - 당황하게 하다, 공황이 나게 하다, 열광케 하다
v. intr. - 당황하다, 공황이 나다

2.
n. - 기장류

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 恐慌, 恐怖, パニック
v. - 恐慌に陥る, がひどくうろたえる

idioms:

• panic button    非常ボタン
• panic stations    パニック状態

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مسعور, رعب, فزع, ذعر (فعل) يرعب, يفزع, يصيب بالذعر (صفه) ارتعابي, مفزع‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בהלה, פניקה‬
v. tr. - ‮עורר בהלה, הצחיק‬
v. intr. - ‮נבהל, פחד‬
n. - ‮סוג עשב, דוחן - סוגי דגניים המשמשים כמספוא‬

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