Anxious is an adjective describing a state of unease or worry, often with physical manifestations like tension or restlessness. It conveys concern about potential outcomes and can apply to people, situations, or feelings. In everyday use, it signals heightened apprehension or nervousness, sometimes even without a clear cause.
"I felt anxious before the interview but managed to stay calm during it."
"The students were anxious about the exam results."
"She grew anxious as the waiting room clock ticked louder."
"His anxious thoughts made it hard to fall asleep last night."
Anxious comes from the Latin anxius, meaning 'troubled, uneasy, anxious, with care.' Anxius itself derives from anxere ‘to choke, throttling pain, trouble,’ connected to Greek ankhnein ‘to choke, crush,’ and the Proto-Indo-European root *angh-, linked to pain and fear. In medieval Latin usage, anxius described things that caused distress, eventually evolving into English as a general state of worry or unease. The early modern English adoption solidified the meaning around psychological distress rather than merely physical sensation. The word’s nuance broadened over time to include anxious anticipation about future events, not only current fear. First known use in English literature appears in the 14th–15th centuries, with later semantic shifts aligning more with emotional/psychological states rather than medical or moral fault. Today, anxious is a common everyday descriptor and remains central to discussions of mental health and emotional regulation. Its adjective form characterizes temperament or conditions rather than specific disorders, though in clinical contexts, it may align with anxiety disorders when discussing persistent, excessive worry or fear beyond typical unease.
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Words that rhyme with "Anxious"
-ous sounds
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Pronounce as /ˈæŋk.ʃəs/ in US/UK/AU. The primary stress is on the first syllable: ANX-ious. Start with the open front unrounded vowel /æ/ as in 'cat,' then move to the velar nasal /ŋ/ (like 'sing'), followed by /k/ as in 'cat'. The second syllable begins with /ʃ/ as in 'she,' then a short /ə/ (schwa) or reduced vowel, ending with /s/ or /z/ depending on adjacent sounds. In careful speech, say /ˈæŋk.ʃəs/ clearly; in fast connected speech it may reduce slightly: /ˈæŋ.ʃəs/.”,
Common errors include misplacing the /ŋk/ cluster by producing /nk/ with a softer /n/ or splitting the /ŋk/ into separate sounds, and shortening or softening the /ʃəs/ ending into /ʃɪz/ or /əs/. Some speakers also stress the second syllable by mistake (an-’XIOUS). To correct: keep the /ŋ/ immediately followed by /k/ with a hard velar stop, then /ʃ/ followed by a clear schwa /ə/ and final /s/. Practice saying ANK + SHUS in one smooth syllable to avoid yielding a separate 'NKS' sound.”,
In US/UK/AU, the initial /æ/ is common across all, with rhoticity affecting the following vowel in connected contexts; the /r/ is not present in anxious, so rhotic accents don’t apply here. The /ʃ/ and final /əs/ are consistent, but Australians may slightly lengthen the /æ/ and have a more rounded /ə/ in the schwa. UK speakers may fuse /æŋk/ more tightly, while US speakers sometimes emphasize the /æ/ and keep a crisper /ɔː/ style if influenced by regional variation. Across all, the key is the /æŋk/ onset and the /ʃəs/ end—differences are subtle rather than dramatic.”,
The difficulty lies in blending the /æŋk/ cluster with the /k/ immediately before /ʃ/ and the follow-up /əs/. The /ŋk/ sequence can trip speakers who pause before the velar stop, and the /ʃ/ followed by /ə/ can reduce to a schwa too early, making it sound like /ˈæŋk.ʃɪs/ or /ˈæŋk.ʃəs/ inconsistently. Also, second-syllable reduction or linking in fluent speech can blur syllable boundaries. Focus on keeping /ŋk/ tight and pronounce /ʃəs/ as a single unit with a clear /ə/ before the final /s/.”,
There is no silent letter in anxious. Every letter in anxious is pronounced in standard pronunciations: A-n-x-i-o-u-s, though the 'i' often contributes to the schwa-like quality of the second syllable, and the 'u' contributes to the final /əs/ sound as part of the /əs/ cluster. The word relies on pronunciation of the two syllables with a clear onset /æŋk/ and coda /ʃəs/. Some speakers may reduce the /ə/ slightly, but the letters themselves are not silent in standard speech.
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