Word.ws English Dictionary

anxious

Syllables: an·xiousUK/ˈæŋkʃəs/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈaŋkʃəs/

anxious adjective: nervous and worried.

Adjective

anxious (comparative more anxious or anxiouser, superlative most anxious or anxiousest)

  1. Nervous and worried.
  2. Having a feeling of anxiety or disquietude; extremely concerned, especially about something that will happen in the future or that is unknown.
    • She was anxious to hear how her test results were.
    • I could tell she was anxious as she was biting her nails.
  3. Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying.
    • anxious labor
    • There was an anxious wait before the results were revealed.
  4. Earnestly desirous.
    • He is anxious to please, so you can count on him.
    • All the voters were anxious to hear the election result.
    Synonyms:
    restless, solicitous

anxious meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

anxious in Hindi

nervous and worried
चिंतित cintit
having a feeling of anxiety or disquietude; extremely concerned, especially about something that will happen in the future or that is unknown
चिंतित cintit

anxious in Tamil

ஆவலுள்ள, ஆர்வமுடைய, அக்கறையுடைய, ஆவலுடன், பதற்றமான, கவலைப்படும்

anxious in Marathi

anxious, nervous
उद्विग्न udvigna

anxious in Urdu

بےچین, بےکل, پریشان
More languagesFewer languages
anxious in Bengali
আকুল akul, অধীর odhir
anxious in Malayalam
വിചാരപ്പെടുന്ന, ഉത്കണ്ഠാപൂർവ്വമായ, ചിന്താവിഷ്ടമായ
anxious in Kannada
ವ್ಯಾಕುಲತೆ, ಚಿಂತಾಕ್ರಾಂತ, ಚಿಂತಾಜನಕ, ಆತಂಕಗೊಂಡ
anxious in Sanskrit
उद्विग्न udvigna
anxious in Arabic
قَلِق qaliq, قَلِقَة qaliqa
anxious in Indonesian
cemas
anxious in Thai
ไม่สบายใจ, ใจไม่ดี
anxious in Vietnamese
nao

Examples of anxious in a sentence

  • 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.1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The...
  • 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.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
  • 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.2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:
  • The sweet of life, from which God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares.1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by...

All 40 example sentences with anxious

Synonyms of anxious

All synonyms of anxious

Forms of anxious

comparativemore anxious
comparativeanxiouser
superlativemost anxious
superlativeanxiousest
alternative form (obsolete)anctious

Origin of anxious

Borrowed from Latin anxius, from angō (“to cause pain, choke”); akin to Ancient Greek ἄγχω (ánkhō, “to choke”). See anger; angst.

Words formed from anxious

Phrases with anxious

Questions about anxious

What does anxious mean?
Anxious means nervous and worried.
What is anxious in Hindi?
Anxious in Hindi is चिंतित (cintit). See Anxious meaning in Hindi.
How do you use anxious in a sentence?
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.
What part of speech is anxious?
Anxious is an adjective.
How do you pronounce anxious?
Anxious is pronounced /ˈæŋkʃəs/ (UK).

Words near anxious in the dictionary

  1. anxiolytics
  2. anxiometric
  3. anxioselective
  4. anxiostressive
  5. anxiotropic
  6. anxious
  7. anxious bench
  8. anxious benches
  9. anxiouser
  10. anxiousest
  11. anxiously

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: anxious (page history and authors); anxious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); उद्विग्न (Marathi) (page history and authors); anxious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অধীর (Bengali) (page history and authors); anxious (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); anxious (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); उद्विग्न (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-anxious.ogg.

Cite this entry: “anxious.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anxious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.