stress

English Online Dictionary. What means stress‎? What does stress mean?

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stɹɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs

Noun

stress (countable and uncountable, plural stresses)

1. (biology) A physical, chemical, infective agent aggressing an organism.
2. (biology) Aggression toward an organism resulting in a response in an attempt to restore previous conditions.
3. (countable, physics) 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, physics) 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. (countable, phonetics, loosely) 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.

   Synonym: accent

7. (countable, phonetics, strictly) 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.

   Synonym: stress accent

   Antonyms: pitch, pitch accent
8. (uncountable) Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
9. Obsolete form of distress.
10. (Scots law) distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.

Synonyms

• (phonetics): accent, emphasis
• (on words in speaking): emphasis
• (on a point): emphasis

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

stress (third-person singular simple present stresses, present participle stressing, simple past and past participle stressed)

1. (transitive) To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
2. (transitive) To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
3. (intransitive, informal) 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.

Synonyms

• (phonetics): emphasise/emphasize
• (on words in speaking): emphasise/emphasize
• (on a point): emphasise/emphasize, underline

Derived terms

• de-stress, destress
• stressed
• stress out

Translations

References

Related terms

• strain
• strait
• strict
• stringent
• stringency

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsd̥ʁɛs], [ˈsd̥ʁas], [ˈsd̥ʁɑs]

Noun

stress c or n (singular definite stressen or stresset, not used in plural)

1. stress

Derived terms

• stresse (verb)
• stresset (adjective)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /strɛs/
• Hyphenation: stress
• Rhymes: -ɛs

Noun

stress m (uncountable)

1. stress

Derived terms

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stʁɛs/

Noun

stress m (uncountable)

1. stress (emotional pressure)

Derived terms

Further reading

• “stress”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Icelandic

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstrɛsː/
• Rhymes: -ɛsː

Noun

stress n (genitive singular stress, no plural)

1. stress

Declension

Related terms

• stressa
• stressaður

Indonesian

Noun

stress (plural stress-stress)

1. nonstandard spelling of stres

Adjective

stress (comparative lebih stress, superlative paling stress)

1. nonstandard spelling of stres

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstrɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs
• Hyphenation: strèss

Noun

stress m (invariable)

1. stress

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Verb

stress

1. imperative of stresse

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: stress

Noun

stress m (plural stresses)

1. alternative form of estresse
2. alternative form of stresse

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /esˈtɾes/ [esˈt̪ɾes]
• Rhymes: -es

Noun

stress m (plural stresses)

1. stress

   Synonym: estrés

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress. First attested in the 1950s.

Noun

stress c (uncountable)

1. stress

Declension

Further reading

• stress in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker