stress

Plural: stresses

Noun

the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)
- "he put the stress on the wrong syllable"
(psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense
- "stress is a vasoconstrictor"
special emphasis attached to something
- "the stress was more on accuracy than on speed"
difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension; ; - R.J.Samuelson
- "she endured the stresses and strains of life"
- "he presided over the economy during the period of the greatest stress and danger"
(physics) force that produces strain on a physical body
- "the intensity of stress is expressed in units of force divided by units of area"
A physical, chemical, infective agent aggressing an organism.
Aggression toward an organism resulting in a response in an attempt to restore previous conditions.
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.
Force externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.
Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.
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.
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.
Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
Obsolete form of distress.
distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.

Verb

Verb Forms: stressed, stressing, stresses

To emphasize or place importance upon.
to stress, single out as important
put stress on; utter with an accent
test the limits of
To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
To suffer stress; to worry or be agitated.
To emphasise (a syllable of a word).
To emphasise (words in speaking).
To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.

Examples

Go easy on him, he's been under a lot of stress lately.
He liked to stress his high-scoring words by placing them on bonus squares.
I must stress that this information is given in strict confidence.
Some people put the stress on the first syllable of “controversy”; others put it on the second.
“Emphasis” is stressed on the first syllable, but “emphatic” is stressed on the second.

Origin / 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.

Synonyms

accent, accentuate, emphasis, emphasise, emphasize, focus, punctuate, strain, tenseness, tension, try, stress accent, underline

Antonyms

pitch, pitch accent

Scrabble Score: 6

stress: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
stress: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
stress: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 6

stress: valid Words With Friends Word