• Stress

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /stɹɛs/
    • Rhymes: -É›s

    Origin

    From Middle English destresse, from Old French, from Latin stringere ("to draw tight").

    Keil, R.M.K. (2004) Coping and stress: a conceptual analysis Journal of Advanced Nursing, 45(6), 659–665

    In the sense of "mental strain" or “disruption”, used occasionally in the 1920s and 1930s by psychologists, including Walter Cannon (1934); in “biological threat”, used by endocrinologist Hans Selye, by metaphor with stress in physics (force on an object) in the 1930s, and popularized by same in the 1950s.

    Full definition of stress

    Noun

    stress

    (countable and uncountable; plural stresss)
    1. (countable, physics) The internal distribution of force per unit area (pressure) within a body reacting to applied forces which causes strain or deformation and is typically symbolised by σ
    2. (countable, physics) externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.
    3. (uncountable) Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.Go easy on him, he's been under a lot of stress lately.
    4. (uncountable, phonetics) The emphasis placed on a syllable of a word.Some people put the stress on the first syllable of “controversy”; others put it on the second.
    5. (uncountable) Emphasis placed on words in speaking.
    6. (uncountable) Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
    7. Obsolete form of distress
    8. (Scotland, legal) distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.

    Synonyms

    Verb

    1. To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
    2. To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
    3. (informal) To suffer stress; to worry or be agitated.
    4. To emphasise (a syllable of a word).“Emphasis” is stressed on the first syllable, but “emphatic” is stressed on the second.
    5. To emphasise (words in speaking).
    6. To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.I must stress that this information is given in strict confidence.

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

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