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anxious

adjective

Simple meaning

Worried and nervous about what might happen.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

angkshuhs

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈæŋkʃəs

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Having a feeling of anxiety or disquietude; extremely concerned, especially about something that will happen in the future or that is unknown.

  2. of things

    Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying.

  3. Nervous and worried.

  4. Earnestly desirous.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Having a feeling of anxiety or disquietude; extremely concerned, especially about something that will happen in the future or that is unknown.

Used this way, anxious is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Strong
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Everyday but emotionally strong

Where it naturally appears

  • Personal/emotional discussion
  • Literature/storytelling

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Having a feeling

anxious desireanxious thought

Other combinations

particularly anxiousanxious eyesanxious face

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • anxiouslyadverbDerived adverb

    With anxiety or apprehension.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: having a feeling of anxiety or disquietude

apprehensive

Commonly Confused With

eagerAnxious vs. EagerKnow the difference

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.