up behind me and shouted in my ear.

scare

n. 1 [S] a sudden feeling of fear or worry:

I got/had a scare (= I was very worried) when I looked at my bank statement this morning!

You gave us a real scare (= frightened us) when you fainted, you know.

2 [C] when a subject receives a lot of public attention and worries many people, often unnecessarily:

a bomb/health scare

The government are accused of employing scare tactics (= ways of frightening people in order to persuade them to do something).

The press have been publishing scare stories (= newspaper reports which make people feel unnecessarily worried) about the mystery virus.

scared

adj. frightened or worried:

He's scared of spiders.

I'm scared of telling her what really happened.

He's scared to tell her what really happened.

I was scared (= very worried) (that) you might not be there.

I was scared stiff (= extremely frightened).

She had a scared look on her face.

frighten/scare sb out of their wits (ALSO frighten/scare the wits out of sb)

to make someone very frightened:

Don't shout like that! You scared me out of my wits.

fear

n. [C or U] an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by sth. dangerous, painful or bad that is happening or might happen:

Trembling with fear, she handed over the money to the gunman.

Even when the waves grew big, the boy showed no (signs of) fear.

I have a fear of heights.

The low profit figures simply confirmed my worst fears.