stress
/stres/- 1.
Pressure or worry caused by difficult situations. It can affect how you feel and how your body works.
- Work stress is affecting my sleep.
- She felt stress before the exam.
- Too much stress can make you tired.
- 2.
Extra importance given to something when speaking or writing. It shows that something matters more than other things.
- The teacher put stress on good pronunciation.
- This report places stress on safety.
- He laid stress on punctuality.
To make a person or thing feel pressure or strain. It can also mean to say something with special importance.
- Long hours can stress the body.
- The manager stressed the deadline.
- Please stress the first syllable.
Adinary Nuance
Stress is close to worry, pressure, and tension, but each word fits a different idea. Stress often means the harmful feeling caused by pressure, while pressure is the cause and tension is the tight, uneasy state. In formal writing, stress can also mean special importance, which worry and tension do not.
In other languages
- Vietnamese
- căng thẳng
- Spanish
- estrés
- Chinese
- 压力
- Japanese
- ストレス
- Korean
- 스트레스
Etymology
Stress comes from Old French estresse, meaning 'narrowness' or 'oppression', and from Latin strictus, meaning 'drawn tight'. It entered English in the Middle Ages.
Common phrases
Synonyms
Related words
Frequently asked questions
- Is stress a countable noun?
- Usually no. We say 'much stress' or 'a lot of stress', not 'many stresses' in this meaning.
- What's the difference between stress and pressure?
- Pressure is the force or demand. Stress is the feeling or effect that pressure creates.
- Can stress be a verb?
- Yes. It can mean 'emphasize' or 'cause strain'. For example, 'stress the main point'.
- Is stress common in academic English?
- Yes. It is very common in IELTS, university, and business writing.