脅かす・嚇かす・威かす・おびやかす：What's the difference?

In fact, these three words are different, but there is no difference in daily conversation because they have the same pronunciation. Even the Japanese don't necessarily know these three words clearly, so most of them are written under hiragana instead.

1. おびやかす・おどかす・おどす

 "おびやかす," which means threat and danger in an abstract sense. For example: endangering society, threatening the market, threatening the living environment, etc.

"おどかす" means using What you said to make the others afraid, such as telling ghost stories to children, showing off their military strength to the other country, telling how severe the condition of the others is, and so on, which makes the others feel afraid. This is the purpose of "おどかす" This usage can also be replaced by "おどす", which expresses the same meaning.

"おどす "means two things. One is a threat in a specific sense, that is, the threat of holding a knife and pointing at your nose. You can benefit from this threat, which belongs to the criminal crime category. This usage can only be used "おどす" and cannot be replaced by the other two verbs. The second is to make a certain sound or speech, which makes the others afraid and surprised. For example, to frighten animals and children, this usage can be replaced by "おどかす," but it cannot be replaced by "おびやかす."

Explanation from: https://kanjitisiki.com/tisiki/13-13.html

「脅す」は、「おびやかす」「こわがらせる」という意味で使われます。「不正をばらすと脅す」「脅して金をとる」という使い方をします。

「威す」は、「威力でおそれさせる」という意味で使われます。「新兵器で他国を威す」という使い方をします。

「嚇す」は、「大声でおそれさせる」という意味で使われます。「大声で相手を嚇す」という使い方をします。

So this is a Japanese explanation from other websites. In fact, I think 「威す」 in sentence 2 can be replaced by 「脅す」 because their meaning is not much different in essence. The purpose of showing weapons to other countries is to make them afraid, so there is no problem using 「脅す」,  same as sentence 3.

Anyway, we commonly use 「脅す」 for all situations. If you use it wrong, it doesn't matter, because in most cases, you don't write Kanji.

And perhaps ONLY News will use 「威す」to describe the International events .

OK, that's all. Have a good day.