nerves
n · noun
Form of nerf , plural of nerf.
Simple meaning
A 1919 German silent film directed by Robert Reinert and starring Eduard von Winterstein, Lia Borré and Erna Morena.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nurvzIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈnɝvz
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
n
German:Nerven
A 1919 German silent film directed by Robert Reinert and starring Eduard von Winterstein, Lia Borré and Erna Morena.
noun
An uneasy psychological state
“He suffered an attack of nerves.”
Control of your emotions
“This kind of tension is not good for my nerves.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (German:Nerven) a 1919 German silent film directed by Robert Reinert and starring Eduard von Winterstein, Lia Borré and Erna Morena.
Used this way, nerves is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Uneasynoun
“He suffered an attack of nerves.”
Controlnoun
“This kind of tension is not good for my nerves.”
More ways to use nerves
- “He suffered an attack of nerves.”noun
- “This kind of tension is not good for my nerves.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Any bundle of nerve fibers running to various organs and tissues of the body.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The use of psychological tactics to destroy the opponents' morale.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Harmful pressure on a nerve (especially in nerves that pass over rigid prominences).
Repeated and long-term nerve compression (usually in nerves near joints that are subject to inflammation or swelling).
A network of intersecting nerves.
The lowest pair of spinal nerves.
One of a pair of nerves that originate from lumbar nerves and supply the muscles and skin of the anterior part of the thigh.
Arises from the sacral plexus and passes about halfway down the thigh where it divides into the common peroneal and tibial nerves.
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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.