stress
stressed; stresses; stressing
The word stress is about pressure, whether it's pressure on a syllable of a word (TRAIN-er versus train-EE), an object (the bridge is designed to handle the stress of the cars), or a person (I am under a lot of stress).
It says something about our culture, how much we love to use the word stress and keep redefining it to mean new things. The word first appeared in about 1300, when it meant hardship or a force to which someone is subjected. In the 1890s, we stretched the meaning to include "emphasizing something" and, in the middle of the 20th century, started to associate it with psychological pressure.
Definitions of stress
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special emphasis attached to something
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the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)“he put the stress on the wrong syllable”
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types:
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accentuation
the use or application of an accent; the relative prominence of syllables in a phrase or utterance
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pitch accent, tonic accent
emphasis that results from pitch rather than loudness
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word accent, word stress
the distribution of stresses within a polysyllabic word
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sentence stress
the distribution of stresses within a sentence
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type of:
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inflection, prosody
the patterns of stress and intonation in a language
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(physics) force that produces strain on a physical body“the intensity of stress is expressed in units of force divided by units of area”
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types:
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tension
(physics) a stress that produces an elongation of an elastic physical body
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breaking point
the degree of tension or stress at which something breaks
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type of:
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force
(physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity
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tension
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(psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense“stress is a vasoconstrictor”
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types:
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yips
nervous tension that causes an athlete to fail (especially causes golfers to miss short putts)
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breaking point
(psychology) stress at which a person breaks down or a situation becomes crucial
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type of:
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mental strain, nervous strain, strain
(psychology) nervousness resulting from mental stress
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yips
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difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension“"he presided over the economy during the period of the greatest stress and danger"- R.J.Samuelson”
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synonyms:
strain
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type of:
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difficulty
a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome
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difficulty
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to stress, single out as important
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synonyms:
accent, accentuate, emphasise, emphasize, punctuate
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types:
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background, downplay, play down
understate the importance or quality of
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bring out, set off
direct attention to, as if by means of contrast
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re-emphasise, re-emphasize
emphasize anew
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bear down
pay special attention to
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topicalize
emphasize by putting heavy stress on or by moving to the front of the sentence
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point up
emphasize, especially by identification
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drive home, press home, ram home
make clear by special emphasis and try to convince somebody of something
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emphasise, emphasize, underline, underscore
give extra weight to (a communication)
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pick up
lift out or reflect from a background
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wave off
dismiss as insignificant
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foreground, highlight, play up, spotlight
move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent
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raise
bring (a surface or a design) into relief and cause to project
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soft-pedal
play down or obscure
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put stress on; utter with an accent
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synonyms:
accent, accentuate
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test the limits of
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘stress'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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