stress

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) A physical, chemical, infective agent aggressing an organism.
2. (countable, uncountable) Aggression toward an organism resulting in a response in an attempt to restore previous conditions.
3. (countable) The internal distribution of force across a small boundary per unit area of that boundary (pressure) within a body. It causes strain or deformation and is typically symbolised by σ or τ.
4. (countable) Force externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.
5. (uncountable) Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.
6. (broadly, countable) A suprasegmental feature of a language having additional attention raised to a sound, word or word group by means of of loudness, duration or pitch; phonological prominence.
7. (countable) The suprasegmental feature of a language having additional attention raised to a sound by means of loudness and/or duration; phonological prominence phonetically achieved by means of dynamics as distinct from pitch.
8. (uncountable) Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
9. (alt-of, countable, obsolete, uncountable) Obsolete form of distress.
10. (countable, uncountable) distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.

Verb

1. (transitive) To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
2. (transitive) To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
3. (informal, intransitive) To suffer stress; to worry or be agitated.
4. (transitive) To emphasise (a syllable of a word).
5. (transitive) To emphasise (words in speaking).
6. (transitive) To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.

Opposite of

pitch, pitch accent

Synonyms

accent

emphasize

emphasis

strain

pressure

accentuate

tension

underline

highlight

emphasise

tense

strech

wind up

rack

tighten

importance

punctuate

tenseness

weight

squeeze

accentuation

try

push

play up

press

tone

pinch

anxiety

focus

underscore

anguish

bind

confine

condense

be stretched tight

compulsion

stow

squash

tautness

exaggerate

bandage

set off

enclose

shut up

lock up

put away

oppress

distress

intensify

force

Translations

stress

estrés

accento

Betonung

accent

Stress

tensione

stress

souligner

betonen

pression

Spannung

tension

Druck

anspannen

Pronounced as (IPA)

/stɹɛs/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: destresse

Inherited from Middle English: stresse

In summary

From a shortening of Middle English destresse, borrowed from Old French destrecier, from Latin distringō (“to stretch out”). This form probably coalesced with Middle English stresse, from Old French estrece (“narrowness”), from Vulgar Latin *strictia, from Latin strictus (“narrow”).
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.

Sentences

Storm and stress .