anxiety
Americannoun
-
anxieties
plural
-
distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune.
He felt anxiety about the possible loss of his job.
- Synonyms:
- disquiet, worry, foreboding, fear
- Antonyms:
- tranquility, serenity, certainty
-
earnest but tense desire; eagerness.
He had a keen anxiety to succeed in his work.
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Psychiatry. a state of apprehension and psychic tension occurring in some forms of mental disorder.
noun
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a state of uneasiness or tension caused by apprehension of possible future misfortune, danger, etc; worry
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intense desire; eagerness
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psychol a state of intense apprehension or worry often accompanied by physical symptoms such as shaking, intense feelings in the gut, etc, common in mental illness or after a very distressing experience See also angst
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A state of apprehension and fear resulting from the anticipation of a threatening event or situation.
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◆ In psychiatry, a patient has an anxiety disorder ◆ if normal psychological functioning is disrupted or if anxiety persists without an identifiable cause.
Synonym Usage
See apprehension.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of anxiety
First recorded in 1515–25; from Latin anxietās, equivalent to anxi(us) anxious + -etās, variant of -itās before a vowel
Compare meaning
How does anxiety compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Anxiety is the vague, uneasy feeling you get when you're dreading something. Anxiety can also be a permanent state of nervousness that some people with mental illnesses experience, a milder version of panic. When a scary or unpleasant event is looming, like getting a family portrait taken the year you have braces, you might feel some anxiety. You might also feel anxiety about passing chemistry, especially if you’ve skipped a lot of classes. Someone who suffers from a mild or severe mental illness might feel anxiety all the time. Deep breathing, playing relaxing music, and medication have all been known to help reduce anxiety.
Vocabulary lists containing anxiety
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 4
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"The Tell-Tale Heart," Vocabulary from the short story
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In his roughly 50 years preaching, Hutchinson says the anxiety he is hearing about AI outranks everything.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
The programme includes face-to-face workshops and informal peer support social groups and covers a range of topics, including managing anxiety and stress and boosting self-esteem.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
Their first-of-its-kind observational study, published in Nature Communications, found that loneliness and social isolation were associated with the loss of nearly six years of life free from mental disorders such as depression and anxiety.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2026
Do you have any anxiety about being seen as a carpetbagger?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
“Here’s what I want you to do, Andrew. I want you to write and draw in this book. About your anxiety, about how it feels. About anything. Every day, okay? Can you do that?”
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
Like any good advertising, it worked best when soothing our anxieties and tapping into our fantasies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
It describes several overlapping anxieties about modern restaurant food, but its prehistory belongs, at least partly, to the ghost kitchen.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
Over the summer, those anxieties deepened after Netflix said it would publish viewership data less frequently.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
We’re awash in apocalyptic anxieties about rogue technology.
From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026
As spring approached and the end of the school year neared, my anxieties increased.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
