distress.

Acute emotional suffering or upset in response to something threatening, painful, or overwhelming.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• visible distress
• emotional distress
• in distress

On the page

The evacuation notice caused particular distress to residents who could not walk unaided.

Hearing the footsteps return, he cried out in distress.

She noticed his distress before he managed to explain the threat.

Usage notes

Primary category: fear. Broader than fear: grief and pain also cause distress. Name the danger when using it as fear vocabulary; avoid reducing severe distress to ordinary nerves. Usually uncountable in this sense. Derived family (not additional inflections or records): distressed; distressing.