anxiety
Pluralanxieties
- 1An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, and apprehension, with worry about some uncertain event.
The anxiety of waiting for the diagnosis kept her awake all night.
Months of financial uncertainty left him in a constant state of anxiety.
Similarworry, nervousness, apprehension, unease, stress
Oppositecalm, serenity, tranquility
Note
The everyday sense, and the one closest to the word's roots: Latin anxietās, from angō, "to distress," akin to Greek ánkhō, "to choke." Anger and angst belong to the same family. People feel anxiety, and situations cause it. It works as a mass noun and as a countable one, so anxieties can name the separate worries a person carries.
- 2A diagnosable disorder marked by persistent, excessive worry, especially generalized anxiety disorder.
Her anxiety is well managed with therapy and regular exercise.
Many college students struggle with anxiety during their first year away from home.
Note
Everyday speech now uses the bare word as shorthand for a diagnosed condition, and it often takes a possessive. Mara Wilson, writing in 2022, says "My anxiety is a part of me." That my marks a condition someone lives with, not a passing mood. In clinical or formal writing, name the disorder itself, such as generalized anxiety disorder.
- 3A condition of restless agitation, frequently with an unpleasant feeling of heaviness or tightness in the stomach.
Clinicians noted her anxiety alongside the characteristic tightness in the upper abdomen.
The episode presented as anxiety with visible restlessness and a distressing sense of chest oppression.
Similaragitation, restlessness, distress
Note
A clinician's word for the body's share of the state: restlessness, agitation, and a felt oppression or tightness, typically in the stomach or upper abdomen. Its prominent physical component separates it from ordinary worry, because that component can be observed and charted. The tightness echoes the choking root behind the everyday worried sense.
- 4An uneasy or distressing desire for something, or an eager striving to please.
In his anxiety to impress the committee, he over-prepared every detail of the presentation.
Her anxiety for her children's success shaped nearly every decision she made.
Similareagerness, keenness, desire, impatience
Oppositeindifference
Note
Here the unease points forward, toward something wanted rather than something feared. The construction gives it away: anxiety to plus a verb (anxiety to please, anxiety to impress), or anxiety for plus the thing desired. The ordinary worried state concerns an uncertain outcome. This meaning is closer to eagerness, and it is almost always followed by one of those two words.
Practice
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Origin
From Latin anxietas, from anxius ("anxious, distressed, troubled"), from ango ("to distress, trouble"), which is related to Ancient Greek ankho ("to choke").