Distressful

adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Causing or feeling distress, anxiety, or strain; distressing.

    "There, vvhile above the giddy tempeſt flies, / And all around diſtreſsful yells ariſe, / The penſive exile, bending vvith his vvoe, / To ſtop too fearful, and too faint to go."

Adjective
  1. 1
    causing distress or worry or anxiety wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
affectingagonizingalarmingannoyingbitterbleak

Example

More examples

"Between the minded planetary systems occurred infinite variations of personal intercourse. As between human individuals, there were loves and hates, temperamental sympathies and antipathies, joyful and distressful intimacies, cooperations and thwartings in personal ventures and in the great common venture of building the galactic Utopia."

Etymology

From distress + -ful.

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