Worrywart

//ˈwʌɹ.iˌwɔːt// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who worries excessively, especially about unimportant matters.

    "It doesn't mean you're a worrywart, a nervous wreck or in need of heavy medication."

  2. 2
    thinks about unfortunate things that might happen wordnet

Example

More examples

"It doesn't mean you're a worrywart, a nervous wreck or in need of heavy medication."

Etymology

From worry + wart, apparently chosen for alliteration. Presumably related to earlier worryguts. Attested 1956, but earlier examples are found in newspapers of the 1930s and 1940s.

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