Stress

How to spell stress

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stress

What does stress mean?

1. nounMental or emotional strain caused by demanding circumstances.
2. nounThe internal force or pressure exerted on a material or structure.
3. verbTo give particular emphasis or importance to something.

Stress in a sentence

• noun

  The constant deadlines at work left her under enormous stress.

• noun

  The engineers measured the stress on the bridge cables during the test.

• verb

  The trainer wanted to stress how vital safety checks are.

• noun

  Taking a short holiday helped him recover from months of stress.

• noun

  Repeated heavy loading places great stress on the metal beam.

• verb

  In her report she chose to stress the long-term savings.

Where does stress come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word stress is a shortened form of the older English word distress, and both trace back to the Latin verb stringere, meaning 'to draw tight' or 'to bind'. Its past participle strictus, meaning 'drawn tight', gave Old French the noun destresse, describing the hardship or constraint of being squeezed by circumstances. English adopted destresse in the 1300s, and over time speakers clipped off the opening syllable to leave the bare word stress. For centuries it mostly meant hardship or physical force, and only in the twentieth century did engineers and then psychologists give it the modern senses of mechanical strain on a material and mental strain on a person. The same stringere root also lies behind strict, stringent, and constrict, all of which carry that original feeling of being pulled tight.

How the word is built

• str- (from Latin strictus: drawn tight)
• -ess (noun ending, via Old French destresse)