restlessness
Americannoun
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the inability to remain still or at rest, or a mood characterized by this.
To overcome younger students’ restlessness and anxiety, one expert suggests class routines, role play activities, and other calming exercises.
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the fact of being unable to sleep or find a comfortable position in which to sleep.
I haven't been sleeping so well lately—a mix of restlessness and staying up too late watching movies.
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discontent or dissatisfaction that drives one to keep looking for solutions, alternatives, or new things.
We are incomplete beings yearning to be made whole, dogged by a sense of unease and restlessness.
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perpetual movement.
Growing up on the coast of Sydney as he did, his music is influenced by the restlessness of the ocean.
Etymology
Origin of restlessness
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Stability, analysts say, can breed its own restlessness - particularly among younger voters less invested in legacy narratives and more drawn to renewal.
From BBC • May 5, 2026
Stylistically, “Jailbreak” stood at the crossroads of multiple rock genres and tapped into potent social issues, particularly male bonding, restlessness and romantic uncertainty.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 3, 2026
By filtering such a common feeling through a strange and delightfully unsettling narrative lens, “By Design” contends with our modern restlessness in far more memorable fashion than many big-budget, big-idea films of the last year.
From Salon • Feb. 18, 2026
Depression was assessed through a questionnaire asking about depressed mood, disinterest, restlessness or lethargy during the previous two weeks.
From Science Daily • Nov. 17, 2025
When the sun sank, darkness dropped on the island like an extinguisher and soon the shelters were full of restlessness, under the remote stars.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
