I’m now curious because while I was updating the Wikipedia page for Onomatopoeias, I saw two different sets of sounds for scream and shriek. The sounds listed under these two sections seem to overlap.
According to Google, both words are synonyms:
scream noun
a long, loud, piercing cry expressing extreme emotion or pain.shriek noun
a high-pitched piercing cry or sound; a scream.
They both seem to have almost identical meaning. (They are identical to me.) Is there any difference between these two words?
Best Answer
The main different would probably be the pitch and length of the sound.
When I think "scream", I'd mainly think of a long, loud cry.
When I think "shriek", I'd mainly think of how high-pitched the cry is.
I'm easily able to imagine a short shriek, but a short scream doesn't come to me so easily. It just turns into a "shout".
Hope this helps.