anxious
/ˈæŋkʃəs/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.09 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Having a feeling of anxiety or disquietude; extremely concerned, especially about something that will happen in the future or that is unknown.
adj
Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying.
Example Sentences
- "She was anxious to hear how her test results were."
- "I could tell she was anxious as she was biting her nails."
- "Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen."
- "Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him."
- "But, with United fans in celebratory mood as it appeared their team might snatch glory, they faced an anxious wait as City equalised in stoppage time."
- "anxious labor"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ-der. Proto-Italic *anɣō Latin angō Latin ānxiusbor. English anxious Borrowed from Latin anxius, from angō (“to cause pain, choke”); akin to Ancient Greek ἄγχω (ánkhō, “to choke”). See anger; angst.
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂enǵʰ-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈæŋkʃəs/
- British English: /ˈæŋkʃəs/
Inflected Forms
more anxious (comparative)
anxiouser (comparative)
most anxious (superlative)
anxiousest (superlative)
anctious (alternative, obsolete)