anxious
Americanadjective
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full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried; apprehensive.
Her parents were anxious about her poor health.
- Synonyms:
- enthusiastic, solicitous, uneasy, fearful, disturbed, concerned
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earnestly desirous; eager (usually followed by an infinitive orfor ): anxious for our happiness.
anxious to please;
anxious for our happiness.
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attended with or showing solicitude or uneasiness.
anxious forebodings.
adjective
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worried and tense because of possible misfortune, danger, etc; uneasy
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fraught with or causing anxiety; worrying; distressing
an anxious time
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intensely desirous; eager
anxious for promotion
Other Word Forms
- anxiously adverb
- anxiousness noun
- quasi-anxious adjective
- unanxious adjective
Etymology
Origin of anxious
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin anxius “worried, distressed,” derivative of angere “to strangle, pain, distress”; anguish, -ous
Compare meaning
How does anxious compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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.
He said he’s seen sellers “go from confident to quietly anxious right around that mark.”
From MarketWatch • Apr. 3, 2026
In the past, I was an anxious person, and that stemmed from having too much free time.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026
Be fretful, be anxious, be a quivering wreck about what might be in America, but keep perspective, too.
From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026
Policymakers are anxious to see whether those increases spur expectations of higher inflation in the long-term, a dynamic that can itself generate inflation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026
I grip the back of my chair, suddenly anxious to hear his opinion.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
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.
