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• stress
  stress

  noun

  importance attached to a thing.
• -stress
  -stress

  a feminine equivalent of -ster.

stress

¹ American  

[stres] / strɛs /

noun

• stresses
  plural

1. importance attached to a thing.

   to lay stress upon good manners.

   Synonyms:

   worth, value, weight, consequence, emphasis, meaning, significance

2. Phonetics. emphasis in the form of prominent relative loudness of a syllable or a word as a result of special effort in utterance.

3. Prosody. accent or emphasis on syllables in a metrical pattern; beat.

4. emphasis in melody, rhythm, etc.; beat.

5. the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.

6. Mechanics.

   1. the action on a body of any system of balanced forces whereby strain or deformation results.

   2. the amount of stress, usually measured in pounds per square inch or in pascals.

   3. a load, force, or system of forces producing a strain.

   4. the internal resistance or reaction of an elastic body to the external forces applied to it.

   5. the ratio of force to area.

7. Physiology. a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.

8. physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension.

   Worry over his job and his wife's health put him under a great stress.

   Synonyms:

   strain, struggle, exertion, effort, oppression, pressure, burden, anxiety

9. a situation, occurrence, or factor causing this.

   The stress of being trapped in the elevator gave him a pounding headache.

10. Archaic. strong or straining exertion.

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verb (used with object)

• stresses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stressed,
  past participle,  past
• stressing
  present participle

1. to lay stress on; emphasize.

2. Phonetics. to pronounce (a syllable or a word) with prominent loudness.

   Stress the first syllable of “runner.” Stress the second word in “put up with.”

3. to subject to stress or strain.

4. Mechanics. to subject to stress.

verb (used without object)

• stresses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stressed,
  past participle,  past
• stressing
  present participle

1. to experience stress or worry.

   Don't stress about the turkey; I promise it will be delicious.

   Dad is always stressing out over his job.

-stress ² American  

1. a feminine equivalent of -ster.

   seamstress; songstress.

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-stress ¹ British  

suffix

1. indicating a woman who performs or is engaged in a certain activity Compare -ster

   songstress

   seamstress

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stress ² British  

/ strɛs /

noun

1. special emphasis or significance attached to something

2. mental, emotional, or physical strain or tension

3. emphasis placed upon a syllable by pronouncing it more loudly than those that surround it

4. such emphasis as part of a regular rhythmic beat in music or poetry

5. a syllable so emphasized

6. physics

   1. force or a system of forces producing deformation or strain

   2. the force acting per unit area

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verb

1. (tr) to give emphasis or prominence to

2. (tr) to pronounce (a word or syllable) more loudly than those that surround it

3. (tr) to subject to stress or strain

4. informal (intr) to become stressed or anxious

stress Scientific  

/ strĕs /

1. The force per unit area applied to an object. Objects subject to stress tend to become distorted or deformed.

2. Compare strain See also axial stress shear stress See more at Hooke's law

3. 1. A physiologic reaction by an organism to an uncomfortable or unfamiliar physical or psychological stimulus. Biological changes result from stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, including a heightened state of alertness, anxiety, increased heart rate, and sweating.

   2. The stimulus or circumstance causing such a reaction.

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stress ¹ Cultural  

1. In physics, the internal resistance of an object to an external force that tends to deform it.

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stress ² Cultural  

1. A physical factor, such as injury, or mental state, such as anxiety, that disturbs the body's normal state of functioning. Stress may contribute to the development of some illnesses, including heart disease and cancer.

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Usage

What does -stress mean? The form -stress is a suffix that marks a feminine agent noun, which indicates a person who does an action. This suffix is occasionally used in a variety of informal terms, but it has lost popularity in recent years. Increasingly, -stress is seen as an unnecessarily gendered suffix for forming agent nouns because it identifies the "doer" as female. The suffix -stress is a combination of two similar suffixes: Old English -estre, which marked female agent nouns, and Old French -esse (see -ess), a common feminine ending for nouns. What are variants of -stress?When agent nouns ending in -stress are used to refer to a masculine- or neutral-gendered element, -stress becomes -ster, as in seamster (a male seamstress). Want to know more? Read our Words That Use -ster article.

Discover More

The term stress also refers to the physical and mental state produced in the body when it is influenced by such factors: “The stress of the new job was too much for Tim, so he requested reassignment to his old position in the company.”

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonstress
  noun
• stressfulness
  noun
• stresslessness
  noun
• understress
  noun
• restress
  verb
• de-stress
  verb (used with object)
• understress
  verb (used with object)
• antistress
  adjective
• overstressed
  adjective
• stressful
  adjective
• stressless
  adjective
• well-stressed
  adjective
• stressfully
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• stresses
  plural

Participles

• stressing
  present
• stressed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• stress
  simple
• stresses
  simple
• have stressed
  perfect
• has stressed
  perfect
• am stressing
  progressive
• are stressing
  progressive
• is stressing
  progressive
• have been stressing
  perfect progressive
• has been stressing
  perfect progressive

Past

• stressed
  simple
• had stressed
  perfect
• was stressing
  progressive
• were stressing
  progressive
• had been stressing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will stress
  simple
• will have stressed
  perfect
• will be stressing
  progressive
• will have been stressing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of stress¹

First recorded in 1275–1325; (noun) Middle English stresse, aphetic variant of distresse; (verb) derivative of the noun; see origin at distress

Origin of -stress²

-st(e)r + -ess

Explanation

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stress stresses stressed stressing

As hard as it might be to imagine, so-called “panic scams” can work by triggering stress responses that shift victims into fight-or-flight, impairing rational thought, according to cybersecurity experts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026

Often called the "stress hormone" because the body releases it in response to pressure, cortisol plays several essential roles.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026

Cancer cells seem especially vulnerable because they are already under stress.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the suspect may have acted out of stress and frustration over his academic performance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

“Your dad suffered a bout of indigestion, and compounded with all the stress he says he’s been under, it manifested as chest pain.”

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

There are plenty of other ways that our culture has disguised unhealthy behaviors, as “Maddie’s Secret” so cunningly stresses.

From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026

While she stresses that this trend cannot be attributed solely to the country's crisis, neither can it be separated from the uncertainty and daily pressures many young people face.

From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026

"Worries or stresses kind of melt away as you're focused," he said, comparing it to the mindfulness people can get from yoga, sport or watching a film.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

"Our studies highlight that proinsulin folding is vulnerable to many of the same cellular stresses that cause beta cell failure in type 2 diabetes," said Kaufman.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

In addition, they said that society depended on women maintaining the domestic sphere—the home—which provided a refuge from the stresses of the outside world.

From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling

No wonder Jaissle has already stressed the importance of clean sheets, and the players were left sapped by the sheer number of recovery runs during a particular session.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

Although Wilson said it was "disappointing" to see Guimaraes go, he stressed the 28-year-old did not want to "play here anymore".

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

Official sources briefing Iranian media stressed that any reopening would depend on the United States fulfilling what Tehran sees as its commitment to end its own naval blockade of Iran's ports.

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

Gabriel Sanchez, a spokesperson for Lara, stressed that the decision will not affect current rates since it left existing regulations in place.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

My favorite teacher, Miss Kirker, always stressed that when conducting research, we should use various sources, both on- and off-line.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

The Financial Times looks at the Burnham government's "bid to soothe 'public control' anxiety" through "stressing the new administration's desire to attract private capital into key sectors of the economy".

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said in June that the 2028 deliveries would happen in April and November of that year, while stressing that the timetable needed to be "respected."

From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026

“We just felt like if we were stressing people out…we might as well remove that from our process,” she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

He added that those saying the digital euro would be used "as a tool of control" were "lying", stressing there would be the "highest privacy standards".

From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026

In speaking they rolled their “r’s” in Continental style, pronouncing “party” as “parrrtee,” stressing the last syllable, having picked up the habit from white Communists.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

Related Words

• agony
• anxiety
• burden
• crunch
• fear
• hardship
• hassle
• heat
• intensity
• nervousness
• strain
• tension
• trauma
• worry