Distraught

How to spell distraught

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce distraught

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does distraught mean?

1. adjectiveDeeply upset, agitated, or distressed, to the point of being unable to think clearly.

Distraught in a sentence

• The distraught parents waited at the hospital for any news.

• She was distraught when she realised her passport had been stolen abroad.

Where does distraught come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb distrahere, which literally meant 'to pull apart' or 'to drag in different directions', formed from dis- 'apart' and trahere 'to pull or draw'. Its past participle distractus passed into Middle English as 'distract', first describing a mind pulled in several directions and so unable to settle. Around the late 1300s a variant form arose, reshaped to end in '-aught' on the pattern of native past participles such as 'caught' and 'taught', and this rival spelling eventually specialised into the modern 'distraught', reserved for deep emotional turmoil rather than mere distraction. The same trahere root, meaning 'to pull', also gives us 'tractor', 'attract', and 'subtract', all sharing the underlying idea of drawing or dragging. The silent 'gh' in '-aught', which once represented a throaty sound long since lost from English speech, is the main spelling trap, since the word sounds as though it should simply end in '-ot'.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart)
• -traught (an old past-participle form related to 'distract', from Latin trahere 'to pull or draw')