anguish
/ˈæŋ.ɡwɪʃ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.37 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Extreme pain, either of body or mind; excruciating distress; an emotional state caused by intense misery or suffering.
Countable; Uncountable
name
A surname.
name
A male given name.
Example Sentences
- "It took years to overcome the anguish from my wife's death."
- "So, ye miserable people; you must go to God in anguishes, and make your prayer to him."
- "Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?"
- "Love of your selfe, she saide, and deare constraint, Lets me not sleepe, but wast the wearie night In secret anguish and unpittied plaint, Whiles you in carelesse sleepe are drowned quight."
- "But they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage."
- "There, loathing Life, and yet of Death afraid, In Anguish of her Spirit, thus she pray'd."
Etymology
From Middle English angwissh, anguishe, angoise, from Anglo-Norman anguise, anguisse, from Old French angoisse, from Latin angustia (“narrowness, scarcity, difficulty, distress”), from angustus (“narrow, difficult”), from angere (“to press together, cause pain, distress”). See angst, the Germanic cognate, and anger.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂enǵʰ-, angwissh, anguise, angoisse, angustia, angwischen