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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

I spent most of the great technology bubble laughing, but maybe I was left with post-traumatic stress disorder anyway.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026

People whose livelihoods, traditions and cultural identities are closely tied to the ocean can experience significant emotional stress as familiar environments deteriorate.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

Its scripture-heavy programs stress sobriety and transition to self-sufficiency.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Poor mental health is closely tied to academic stress and anxiety among students, Louth said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

“On a scale of one to ten, rate your current stress level.”

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

"We were able to identify numerous genes and signaling pathways that are temporarily activated during repair. They could serve as starting points in the future for influencing post-disease and -injury regeneration processes," Weber stresses.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026

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

At 36, she is still young and will return revived - and with the cachet of having not just won Olympic gold - but dealt with the stresses and strains of that journey.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

The solutions, the report stresses, will need to meet people where they are.

From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026

But they did not count on the grueling traffic, on how far away everything seems, on how much is asked of volunteers to sustain the community, or on the stresses of a breadwinner’s travels.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

But Szczurowski stressed that foreign investors’ and governments’ diversification of their bondholders didn’t necessarily threaten the dollar’s status as a reserve currency.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026

They tend to operate during the coldest or hottest hours, when demand for electricity skyrockets and the power grid is stressed, said Form’s chief executive and co-founder, Mateo Jaramillo.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

She stressed people should not use the eclipse glasses with other optical equipment such as binoculars, but could put them over spectacles.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

People compare microseries to soap operas, but you both have stressed that you want to explore different genres.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

After that, the big ones started to fall: large-scale resorts, fly-in luxury cottages, and wilderness getaways for stressed businessmen and their foreign investors.

From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline

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

It is worth stressing Bamba has made only 12 competitive starts in all competitions for Monaco.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 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

But Klingbeil rejected claims Berlin was "looting" the fund, while stressing cuts were necessary to help plug the hole in the budget.

From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026

Meanwhile, the judge kept stressing that the evidence wasn't newly discovered and should have been presented at trial, so it couldn't create a basis for a stay of execution.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

Related Words

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