Definitions for stress
strɛsstress

Princeton's WordNet(4.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. stress, emphasis, accentnoun

   the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)

   "he put the stress on the wrong syllable"

2. tension, tenseness, stressnoun

   (psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense

   "he suffered from fatigue and emotional tension"; "stress is a vasoconstrictor"

3. stress, focusnoun

   special emphasis attached to something

   "the stress was more on accuracy than on speed"

4. stress, strainnoun

   difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension

   "she endured the stresses and strains of life"; "he presided over the economy during the period of the greatest stress and danger"- R.J.Samuelson

5. stressverb

   (physics) force that produces strain on a physical body

   "the intensity of stress is expressed in units of force divided by units of area"

6. stress, emphasize, emphasise, punctuate, accent, accentuateverb

   to stress, single out as important

   "Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet"

7. stress, accent, accentuateverb

   put stress on; utter with an accent

   "In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word"

8. try, strain, stressverb

   test the limits of

   "You are trying my patience!"

Wiktionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. stressnoun

   The internal distribution of force per unit area (pressure) within a body reacting to applied forces which causes strain or deformation and is typically symbolised by u03C3

2. stressnoun

   externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.

3. stressnoun

   Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.

   Go easy on him, he's been under a lot of stress lately.

4. stressnoun

   The emphasis placed on a syllable of a word.

   Some people put the stress on the first syllable of u201Ccontroversyu201D; others put it on the second.

5. stressnoun

   Emphasis placed on words in speaking.

6. stressnoun

   Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).

7. stressverb

   To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.

8. stressverb

   To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).

9. stressverb

   To suffer stress; to worry or be agitated.

10. stressverb

    To emphasise (a syllable of a word).

    u201CEmphasisu201D is stressed on the first syllable, but u201Cemphaticu201D is stressed on the second.

11. stressverb

    To emphasise (words in speaking).

12. stressverb

    To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.

    I must stress that this information is given in strict confidence.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Stressnoun

   distress

   Etymology: [Abbrev. fr. distress; or cf. OF. estrecier to press, pinch, (assumed) LL. strictiare, fr. L. strictus. See Distress.]

2. Stressnoun

   pressure, strain; -- used chiefly of immaterial things; except in mechanics; hence, urgency; importance; weight; significance

   Etymology: [Abbrev. fr. distress; or cf. OF. estrecier to press, pinch, (assumed) LL. strictiare, fr. L. strictus. See Distress.]

3. Stressnoun

   the force, or combination of forces, which produces a strain; force exerted in any direction or manner between contiguous bodies, or parts of bodies, and taking specific names according to its direction, or mode of action, as thrust or pressure, pull or tension, shear or tangential stress

   Etymology: [Abbrev. fr. distress; or cf. OF. estrecier to press, pinch, (assumed) LL. strictiare, fr. L. strictus. See Distress.]

4. Stressnoun

   force of utterance expended upon words or syllables. Stress is in English the chief element in accent and is one of the most important in emphasis. See Guide to pronunciation, // 31-35

   Etymology: [Abbrev. fr. distress; or cf. OF. estrecier to press, pinch, (assumed) LL. strictiare, fr. L. strictus. See Distress.]

5. Stressnoun

   distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained

   Etymology: [Abbrev. fr. distress; or cf. OF. estrecier to press, pinch, (assumed) LL. strictiare, fr. L. strictus. See Distress.]

6. Stressverb

   to press; to urge; to distress; to put to difficulties

   Etymology: [Abbrev. fr. distress; or cf. OF. estrecier to press, pinch, (assumed) LL. strictiare, fr. L. strictus. See Distress.]

7. Stressverb

   to subject to stress, pressure, or strain

   Etymology: [Abbrev. fr. distress; or cf. OF. estrecier to press, pinch, (assumed) LL. strictiare, fr. L. strictus. See Distress.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Stress

   In continuum mechanics, stress is a physical quantity that expresses the internal forces that neighboring particles of a continuous material exert on each other. For example, when a solid vertical bar is supporting a weight, each particle in the bar pulls on the particles immediately above and below it. When a liquid is under pressure, each particle gets pushed inwards by all the surrounding particles, and, in reaction, pushes them outwards. These macroscopic forces are actually the average of a very large number of intermolecular forces and collisions between the molecules in those particles. Stress inside a body may arise by various mechanisms, such as reaction to external forces applied to the bulk material or to its surface. Any strain of a solid material generates an internal elastic stress, analogous to the reaction force of a spring, that tends to restore the material to its original undeformed state. In liquids and gases, only deformations that change the volume generate persistent elastic stress. However, if the deformation is gradually changing with time, even in fluids there will usually be some viscous stress, opposing that change. Elastic and viscous stresses are usually combined under the name mechanical stress.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Stress

   stres, n. force: pressure: urgency: strain: violence, as of the weather: the relative loudness or emphasis with which certain syllables are pronounced, accent: weight, importance: (mech.) force exerted in any direction or manner between two bodies—the greatest stress which a substance will bear without being torn asunder being its ultimate strength.—v.t. to constrain: lay stress on: to emphasise. [O. Fr. estrecir, from L. strictus, stringĕre, to draw tight.]

2. Stress

   stres, n. distress: legal distraining.

The Standard Electrical Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Stress

   Force exercised upon a solid tending to distort it, or to produce a strain.

Dictionary of Nautical Terms(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. stress

   Hard pressure by weather or other causes. Stress of weather often compels a ship to put back to the port whence she sailed.

Rap Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. stressnoun

   Marijuana, mostly mexican marijauna. That's what the fu** i get for smoking mexican stress -- Mac Dre (Fu** Off The Party) I confiscate the chronic, I let you keep the stress -- Prince Paul ft. Everlast (The Men in Blue)

Suggested Resources(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. stress

   Song lyrics by stress -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by stress on the Lyrics.com website.

Matched Categories

1. • Pronounce
   • Prosody

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'stress' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2716

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'stress' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2611

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'stress' in Nouns Frequency: #1070

4. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'stress' in Verbs Frequency: #452

How to pronounce stress?

1. Alex

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

How to say stress in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of stress in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of stress in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of stress in a Sentence

1. Melissa McCreery:

   Stress activates your adrenal glands to release cortisol, increasing your appetite.

2. Jeremy Corbyn:

   We have more people than ever using foodbanks, we have a greater number of people being homeless and many people in housing stress.

3. Bob Adams:

   The war followed me home, i began to drink more heavily and use drugs. And that would help sometimes with what I didn't know I had, which was post-traumatic stress.

4. Texas Christian University:

   We felt really strongly that during this period of crisis, when students' and families' lives were being upended that we, as an institution, wanted to do everything in our power to alleviate rather than add on any stress to the decision-making that's inherent in the college selection process, the idea of a May 1 deadline in the middle of this crisis feels really absurd.

5. Governor Zhou Xiaochuan:

   The current monetary policy is prudent with a slight loosening bias, we also want to stress that monetary policy should be adjusted dynamically depending on the judgment towards the economic situation.

Images & Illustrations of stress

Popularity rank by frequency of use