stress
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
strehsIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstɹɛs
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.
noun
uncountable
Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.
uncountable
Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
verb
transitive
To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
transitive
To emphasise (a syllable of a word).
transitive
To emphasise (words in speaking).
transitive
To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.
transitive
To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
To stress, single out as important
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.
Used this way, stress is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use stress
- “The stress was more on accuracy than on speed.”noun
- “She endured the stresses and strains of life.”noun
Share your sentence
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.
Bearing a stress or accent.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A test measuring how a system functions when subjected to controlled amounts of stress.
A mark indicating the stress on a syllable.
Fracture resulting from excessive activity rather than a specific injury.
Urinary incontinence that occurs when involuntary pressure is put on the bladder by coughing or laughing or sneezing or lifting or straining.
The distribution of stresses within a sentence.
The distribution of stresses within a polysyllabic word.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: to apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal)
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “stress” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.