trepidation
Americannoun
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tremulous fear, alarm, or agitation; perturbation.
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Archaic. trembling or quivering movement; tremor.
noun
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a state of fear or anxiety
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a condition of quaking or palpitation, esp one caused by anxiety
Other Word Forms
- trepidatious adjective
- trepidatiously adverb
Etymology
Origin of trepidation
First recorded in 1600–10; from Latin trepidātiōn- (stem of trepidātiō ), equivalent to trepidāt(us) (past participle of trepidāre “to hurry, panic, alarm” + -iōn- noun suffix; trepid, -ate 1, -ion
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.
I clicked with the trepidation of someone bracing for a purity test.
From Salon
Investors have recently expressed trepidation about returns on big AI investments.
Still, some Ukrainians look with trepidation at Russian advances, however slow and costly.
"There's a lot of trepidation about where inflation is," he said.
From BBC
Traders’ trepidation has sent Wall Street’s so-called fear guage—the Cboe Volatility Index—to some of its highest levels since April’s tariff announcements.
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.
