trouble
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The state of being troubled, disturbed, or distressed mentally.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
truhbuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɹʌbəl
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
A distressing or dangerous situation.
The state of being troubled, disturbed, or distressed mentally; unease, disquiet.
A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation.
A source of difficulty
“One trouble after another delayed the job.”
Objectionable feature of something or someone; problem, drawback, weakness, failing, or shortcoming.
Violent or turbulent occurrence or event; unrest, disturbance.
verb
transitive
To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed.
transitive
In weaker sense: to bother or inconvenience.
intransitive
To worry; to be anxious.
reflexive or intransitive
To take pains (to do something); to bother.
Take the trouble to do something; concern oneself
“He did not trouble to call his mother on her birthday.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation.
Used this way, trouble 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
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.
Sourcenoun
“One trouble after another delayed the job.”
Takeverb
“He did not trouble to call his mother on her birthday.”
More ways to use trouble
- “One trouble after another delayed the job.”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.
Characterized by or indicative of distress or affliction or danger or need.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A place where trouble exists or occurs regularly.
Someone who deliberately stirs up trouble.
Take the trouble to do something.
Solve problems.
A worker whose job is to locate and fix sources of trouble (especially in mechanical devices).
Persist with actions or an attitude despite the probability that it will cause trouble.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A worker whose job is to locate and fix sources of trouble (especially in mechanical devices).
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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.