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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

worry.

To be troubled; to give way to mental anxiety or doubt.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈwʌ.ɹi/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation[ˈwʌɹɪj]British, Southern, Standard/ˈwɝ.i//ˈwʌ.ɹi/

  1. To be troubled; to give way to mental anxiety or doubt.

    intransitive

  2. Disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress; to exercise.

    transitive
    Your tone of voice worries me.

  3. To harass; to irritate or distress.

    transitive
    The President was worried into military action by persistent advisors.

  4. To seize or shake by the throat, especially of a dog or wolf.

    transitive
    Your dog’s been worrying sheep again.

  5. To touch repeatedly; to fiddle with.

    transitive

  6. To strangle.

    Scotland · obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English worien (“to choke, strangle”), from Old English wyrġan, from Proto-West Germanic *wurgijan, from Proto-Germanic *wurgijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”). Cognate with Dutch worgen, wurgen, German würgen. Compare Latin urgere (“to press, push”), Sanskrit वृहति (vṛhati, “to tear out, pluck”), Lithuanian ver̃žti (“to string; squeeze”), Russian (poetic) отверза́ть (otverzátʹ, “to open”, literally “to untie”). Related to wring.

noun/ˈwʌ.ɹi/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation[ˈwʌɹɪj]British, Southern, Standard/ˈwɝ.i//ˈwʌ.ɹi/

  1. A strong feeling of anxiety.

    countable · uncountable
    I'm afflicted by worry throughout the night.

  2. An instance or cause of such a feeling.

    countable · uncountable
    My main worry is that I'll miss the train.

  3. A person who causes worry.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English worien (“to choke, strangle”), from Old English wyrġan, from Proto-West Germanic *wurgijan, from Proto-Germanic *wurgijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”). Cognate with Dutch worgen, wurgen, German würgen. Compare Latin urgere (“to press, push”), Sanskrit वृहति (vṛhati, “to tear out, pluck”), Lithuanian ver̃žti (“to string; squeeze”), Russian (poetic) отверза́ть (otverzátʹ, “to open”, literally “to untie”). Related to wring.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.