Word.ws English Dictionary

trigger word

trigger word noun: a word or phrase that elicits a strong emotional or psychological reaction based on an individual's past experiences, particularly related to trauma or a mental health condition.

Noun

trigger word (plural trigger words)

  1. A word or phrase that elicits a strong emotional or psychological reaction based on an individual's past experiences, particularly related to trauma or a mental health condition.
    • The former term, though feebly justified later in the text, stands as a historical trigger word of high emotional impact.1932, Religion in Life, number 39, page 136

Forms of trigger word

pluraltrigger words

Questions about trigger word

What does trigger word mean?
Trigger word means a word or phrase that elicits a strong emotional or psychological reaction based on an individual's past experiences, particularly related to trauma or a mental health condition.
What part of speech is trigger word?
Trigger word is a noun.
What is the plural of trigger word?
The plural of trigger word is trigger words.

Words near trigger word in the dictionary

  1. trigger point
  2. trigger points
  3. trigger pricing
  4. trigger warning
  5. trigger warnings
  6. trigger word
  7. trigger words
  8. Trigger's broom
  9. trigger-fish
  10. trigger-happiness
  11. trigger-happy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trigger word (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:

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