Distraught

adj

adj ·2 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Deeply hurt, saddened, or worried; incapacitated by distress.

    "His distraught widow cried for days, feeling very alone."

  2. 2
    Mad; insane.
Adjective
  1. 1
    deeply agitated especially from emotion wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
distressedoverwrought5150abashedabnormalabroad

Example

More examples

"My poor state of mind made me distraught."

Etymology

From Middle English distraught, blend of distract (“distracted”) and straught (“stretched, distraught”), past participle of strecchen (“to stretch”). Compare also bestraught, extraught, forstraught, etc. More at distract, stretch.

More for "distraught"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.