consternate

American  

[kon-ster-neyt] / ˈkɒn stərˌneɪt /

verb (used with object)

consternated, consternating

1. to dismay, confuse, or terrify.

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consternate British  

/ ˈkɒnstəˌneɪt /

verb

1. (tr; usually passive) to fill with anxiety, dismay, dread, or confusion

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Other Word Forms

• unconsternated
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of consternate

1645–55; < Latin consternātus, past participle of consternāre to unsettle, throw into confusion, perhaps intensive derivative of consternere to cover, spread (with) ( con- con- + sternere to strew; cf. stratum), though sense development uncertain

Explanation

To consternate someone is to worry or alarm them. If your talented pitcher suddenly loses the ability to pitch a single strike, it will consternate the other players on your softball team. Things that consternate you cause you concern and dismay, sending you into a startled state of confusion. The word comes from the Latin consternat- ("terrified or prostrated"), which derives from another word meaning "throw down." If something is so disorienting and anxiety-provoking that you feel you've been flung to the ground, it consternates you. A pop quiz in your hardest class might consternate you, as might suddenly remembering you have to give a speech you haven't prepared for.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

consternated consternating

Likewise James Clyde, who gets every laugh he can out of Horace’s valet, Bates, whom Eric Blore made such a consternated, rubber-faced classic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026

St. John cuts a striking figure onscreen but he brings a low-key focus to Buford, coming off more as a consternated neighborhood leader than a fiery radical.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2022

Indeed, we have become so collectively consternated that a 2016 analysis led by the World Health Organisation estimated that, without more treatment, 12bn working days will be lost because of anxiety each year.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2018

The message would engage consternated consumers in a way that meritorious professional initiatives like R-CISC cannot.

From Forbes ● Oct. 6, 2014

I was consternated, but replied that such a statement was an obvious lie, but, between ourselves, I fear it is not, perhaps not even an exaggeration or a misrepresentation.

From Ireland and the Home Rule Movement by McDonnell, Michael F. J.

Another consternating item of last week's news was the summary discharge of Emil Gumbel, statistician visiting the Genetics Congress, from his professorship in the University of Heidelberg.

From Time Magazine Archive

Margaret Jones manifested startling efficacy of hands and medicines, consternating keenness of perceptives, predictions subsequently verified, and the presence of a vanishing child.

From Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism by Putnam, Allen

And then upon Hilversea and its surroundings and dependents fell another bolt—swift, sudden, consternating.

From The Red Derelict by Mitford, Bertram

So the chance to put his serviceability to the proof in consternating circumstances like these, afforded her a subtle satisfaction.

From Mary Wollaston by Webster, Henry Kitchell