What's the difference between "to frighten" and "to scare"?
What's the difference between "to frighten" and "to scare"? I've heard both, but have never been able to figure out the difference.
I would suggest that 'frighten' is more intense than 'scare'. Although they are (very) similar, being scared is less serious than being frightened. That is definitely a second-order effect though; to a first approximation, they are (almost) equivalent.
The two words are synonyms and may be used interchangeably. Scare comes the Old Norse word skirra meaning "frighten."