stress
Pluralstresses (some meanings)
Verbstresses, stressing, stressed
Pluralstresses (some meanings)
Formsstresses, stressing, stressed
- 1Emotional pressure or strain experienced by a person or animal under difficult conditions.
Chronic stress can weaken the body's defenses over time.
Caregivers often experience considerable stress when looking after sick relatives.
UsageUsually under stress or a lot of stress (not
incorrect: a stress). The plural appears mainly in the stresses of work or modern life.Similarstrain, pressure, tension, anxiety, distress
Oppositerelaxation, ease, peace
Note
Psychology gives it a more careful shape. Lazarus and Folkman's transactional model treats it as a relationship between a person and their environment, one appraised as taxing or exceeding the person's resources. That framing explains why the same event can stress one person and leave another untroubled.
- 2To give emphasis to a particular point in an argument or discussion.
Experts stress that early treatment improves recovery.
She stressed the importance of meeting the deadline.
UsageUsually stress that + a clause, or stress a point directly: stress the importance of planning. I must stress that sounds polite but firm.
Similaremphasize, underline, underscore, highlight
Oppositedownplay, minimize, understate, underplay
- 3To worry or feel agitated; to suffer from emotional pressure.
She tends to stress whenever deadlines start piling up.
Try not to stress over things you cannot control.
UsageUsually stress about or stress over something, often in don't stress. Stress out means the same.
- 4A condition or agent, such as heat, drought, or infection, that strains an organism and prompts it to respond.
Environmental stress can slow a plant's growth until conditions improve.
The organism responds to stress by activating its repair systems.
- 5The internal distribution of force per unit area across a boundary within a body, causing strain or deformation and commonly symbolized by σ or τ.
The maximum stress occurs at the inner edge of the curved beam.
Shear stresses develop wherever layers of material slide past one another.
UsageKeep apart from strain: stress is the force carried per unit area, strain the change of shape it causes.
Note
The engineer's quantity is measured as force over area, so it has the same units as pressure. Normal stress, pushing or pulling straight across a surface, is written σ. Shear stress, acting along the surface, is written τ.
- 6An external force applied to a body that produces internal stress within it.
The crane applied a sudden stress to the support cable.
Different stresses act on a bridge as traffic crosses it.
UsageUsually put stress on something, or a stress on it: too much stress on the hooks.
Note
The looser sense puts the force outside the body rather than inside it, such as the pull on a cable or traffic crossing a bridge. Engineers often call this a load and keep stress for the internal force per area. In ordinary technical writing the two meet: an applied stress produces internal stresses.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- The external-force sense refers to force applied to a body, producing internal stress. en.wiktionary.org
- A pull on a cable is an external force that produces internal stress. bu.edu
- Traffic crossing a bridge constitutes an external load. help.pngroads.com
- Engineering distinguishes an external load from internal stress measured as force per area. ect.ac.uk
- An externally applied force produces internal stresses. bu.edu
- 7To cause a person or animal to feel emotional pressure or tension.
Loud fireworks stress many pets during holiday celebrations.
Long commutes and tight deadlines can stress even the calmest workers.
UsageOften stress someone out. People usually describe the result with the adjective: stressed or stressed out by the wait.
- 8Extra prominence given to a syllable or word in speech, through loudness, length, or pitch.
Primary stress falls on the second syllable of 'banana.'
Some languages use stress to tell apart otherwise identical words.
UsageYou put the stress on a syllable, and the stress falls on it: the stress falls on the second syllable.
Note
Accent is the common synonym. Controversy is a well-known disputed case, stressed on the first syllable by some speakers and on the second by others. Phoneticians sometimes narrow the term to loudness and length alone, keeping pitch apart as tone or intonation.
Less common meanings
- 9To say a syllable or word with more force or prominence than the sounds around it.
English speakers stress the second syllable of 'about.'
He stressed the final syllable, giving the name a French sound.
UsageOften passive with on: a word is stressed on its first syllable.
Note
Related words can move the stress. Emphasis is stressed on the first syllable but emphatic on the second, so one form's stress does not predict another's. The noun names the prominence, and this verb says where it goes.
- 10Extra importance attached to a point when arguing or discussing something in speech or writing.
The report places particular stress on the need for reform.
In her argument, the heaviest stress fell on fairness.
UsageUsually put, place or lay stress on a point: lay stress on fairness.
Similaremphasis, weight, importance, insistence
- 11
- 12Obsolete form of distress.
With this sad Hersal of his heavy stress, The warlike Damzel was empassion's sore, And said; Sir Knight, your Cause is nothing less Than is your Sorrow , certes if not more
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneNote
This sense survives from the word's own history. Stress began as a clipped form of Middle English destresse, from Old French destrece and Latin distringō, "to stretch out". It probably merged later with a stresse meaning "narrowness". In Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590), the knight's "heavy stress" is plainly sorrow, the meaning distress keeps today.
- 13The act of seizing property to enforce payment of a debt, or the property so seized.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
The word comes from a shortening of Middle English 'destresse', borrowed from Old French 'destrece' and ultimately from Latin 'distringō' ('to stretch out'). It probably merged with Middle English 'stresse', from Old French 'estrece' ('narrowness') and Latin 'strictus' ('narrow'). The 'mental strain' sense was used occasionally by researchers such as the physiologist Walter Cannon in the 1920s and 1930s, and the 'biological threat' sense was used by endocrinologist Hans Selye by metaphor with stress in physics, becoming popular in the 1950s.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 10 facts
- Stress is a shortening of Middle English destresse. en.wiktionary.org
- The noun derives from Old French destrece, ultimately from Latin distringō. Destrecier is the related French verb. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin distringō means 'to stretch out'. en.wiktionary.org
- The shortened form probably merged with Middle English stresse, derived through Old French estrece ('narrowness') from Latin strictus ('narrow'). en.wiktionary.org
- Psychologists occasionally used stress for mental strain in the 1920s and 1930s. en.wiktionary.org
- Walter Cannon was a physiologist. en.wikipedia.org
- Selye used and popularized biological stress terminology; Cannon had already used stress for factors disrupting homeostasis in 1926. en.wikipedia.org
- Hans Selye was an endocrinologist. en.wikipedia.org
- Selye's biological concept drew on stress in physics. fr.wikipedia.org
- The biological stress concept became popular in the 1950s. nlm.nih.gov