Stress Definition

strĕs

stressed, stresses, stressing

noun

stresses

Emphasis; importance; significance.

Webster's New World

An accent or mark representing such emphasis or force.

American Heritage

Webster's New World

Mental or emotional tension or strain characterized by feelings of anxiety, fear, etc.

Webster's New World

The emphasis placed on the sound or syllable spoken most forcefully in a word or phrase.

American Heritage

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

verb

stressed, stresses, stressing

To give stress or accent to.

Webster's New World

To place emphasis on.

Stressed basic fire safety in her talk.

American Heritage

To emphasize.

Webster's New World

To give prominence of sound to (a syllable or word) in pronouncing or in accordance with a metrical pattern.

American Heritage

To put stress, pressure, or strain on.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

affix

A female person who is, does, or creates (something specified)

Songstress.

Webster's New World

A female person associated with (something specified)

Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Stress

Singular:

stress

Plural:

Middle English stresse hardship partly from destresse (from Old French distress) and partly from Old French estrece narrowness, oppression (from Vulgar Latin strictia) (from Latin strictus) (past participle of stringere to draw tight strait)

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
In the sense of "mental strain" or “disruption", used occasionally in the 1920s and 1930s by psychologists, including Walter Cannon (1934); in “biological threat", used by endocrinologist Hans Selye, by metaphor with stress in physics (force on an object) in the 1930s, and popularized by same in the 1950s.

From Wiktionary
From Middle English destresse, from Old French, from Latin stringere (“to draw tight").

From Wiktionary