apprehensive
If you're apprehensive, you're anxious or fearful. If you live near a busy intersection with no stop signs, you might be a bit apprehensive about crossing the street.
Apprehensive is from a Latin word meaning "to seize," and it originally meant "quick to seize impressions or ideas, perceptive, intelligent." Now it means "anticipating something bad, fearful of what may happen." Synonyms are afraid, which suggest a more immediate fear, and fearful, which suggests a more general temperament ("a fearful child"). You can be apprehensive about a situation while being an optimistic and courageous person in general.
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in fear or dread of possible evil or harm“apprehensive for one's life”“apprehensive of danger”
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Synonyms:
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afraid
filled with fear or apprehension
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afraid
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mentally upset over possible misfortune, danger, etc.
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quick to understand“"a kind and apprehensive friend"- Nathaniel Hawthorne”
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synonyms:
discerning
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perceptive
having the ability to perceive or understand; keen in discernment
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perceptive
/æpriˈhɛnsɪv/
/æprɪˈhɛnsɪv/
Vocabulary lists containing apprehensive
Oyuna of the Kerait tribe recounts how she pursued her dream of racing across the Mongolian steppes as a youth despite being crippled by a horse.
When people mysteriously disappear and her mother is attacked by an infectious patient, sixteen-year-old Raquel Celestin and her friends start an investigation that leads them to a dangerous game in the tunnels of the Bronx.
In this essay, the award-winning author of Bless Me, Ultima shares his thoughts on how descriptions of different cultures are often censored to appeal to mainstream publishers and readers.
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