恐

Fear, apprehension, or anxiety; generally a cognitive state of anticipating danger, mistake, or negative outcome. In Buddhist or stylized texts, it may lean toward misapprehension, delusion, or doubt.

Used as a descriptive adjective (fearful) or noun (fear). It also functions modally when introducing a clause: as a prohibitive/preventative ("lest" or "for fear that") or as an epistemic hedge ("I fear that," "perhaps," or "I suspect that").

Primarily cognitive apprehension regarding future possibility, distinguished from 畏 (wèi), which implies awe, reverence, or respect, and 懼 (jù), which suggests visceral dread or physical trembling.

Tang-period reading *kiǒng. Semantic variant U+22662 exists in some early manuscripts without altering lexical meaning.