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fuss

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Excessive activity, worry, bother, or talk about something.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fuhs
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfʌs

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.

noun

  1. countable or uncountable

    Excessive activity, worry, bother, or talk about something.

  2. A complaint or noise; a scene.

  3. An exhibition of affection or admiration.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To be very worried or excited about something, often too much.

  2. intransitivewith over

    To show affection for, especially animals.

  3. intransitive

    To fiddle; fidget; wiggle, or adjust

  4. transitive

    To disturb (a person)

  5. transitive

    To pet.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (countable or uncountable) Excessive activity, worry, bother, or talk about something.

Used this way, fuss is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Slightly negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Critical or judgemental
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • bicker , rarer, so it draws attention

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

More ways to use fuss

  • “He didn't want to make a fuss.”noun
  • “Don't fuss too much over the grandchildren--they are quite big now.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

great fussbig fuss

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • fuss-budgetnounCompound term

    Thinks about unfortunate things that might happen.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: excessive activity or worry or bother

bustleflurryhustlebickerRare

verb

Sense: to be very worried or excited about something

bustle

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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.