Link Centre Dictionary

stress

UK/ˈstɹɛs/ US/ˈʃt͡ʃɹɛs/ common informal
noun (5) verb (3)

noun

1.

the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)

  • “he put the stress on the wrong syllable”
Synonyms
2.

(psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense

  • “he suffered from fatigue and emotional tension”
  • “stress is a vasoconstrictor”
Synonyms
3.

(physics) force that produces strain on a physical body

  • “the intensity of stress is expressed in units of force divided by units of area”
4.

special emphasis attached to something

  • “the stress was more on accuracy than on speed”
Synonyms
5.

difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension

  • “she endured the stresses and strains of life”
  • “he presided over the economy during the period of the greatest stress and danger” R.J.Samuelson
Synonyms

verb

1.

to stress, single out as important

  • “Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet”
Synonyms
2.

put stress on; utter with an accent

  • “In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word”
Synonyms
3.

test the limits of

  • “You are trying my patience!”
Synonyms

Origin

From a shortening of Middle English destresse, borrowed from Old French destrecier, from Latin distringō (“to stretch out”).

Phrases

  • combat stress reaction
  • complex post-traumatic stress disorder
  • critical incident stress management
  • engineering stress
  • flow stress
  • genotoxic stress
  • internal stress
  • nitrosative stress
  • stress out

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.