Word.ws English Dictionary

troubling

troubling adjective: distressing, worrying. Also the present participle and gerund of trouble.

Adjective

troubling (comparative more troubling, superlative most troubling)

  1. distressing, worrying
    Synonyms:
    alarming, worrisome

Noun

troubling (countable and uncountable, plural troublings)

  1. The infliction of trouble or distress.
    • The Popes censures and troublings of the Emperour [Chapter title]1681, Henry Foulis, The History of Romish Treasons and Usurpations
    • From all troublings of covetousness and ambition1882, Philip Bennett Power, Litanies of daily life

Also used as

troubling is also the present participle and gerund of trouble.

Examples of troubling in a sentence

  • The neurologist pointed to a troubling trough in the pattern of his brain-waves.
  • What she said about narcissism is troubling me.
  • The opacity of these decisions is troubling.

All 34 example sentences with troubling

Synonyms of troubling

Forms of troubling

Adjective
comparativemore troubling
superlativemost troubling
Noun
pluraltroublings

Words formed from troubling

Phrases with troubling

Questions about troubling

What does troubling mean?
Troubling means distressing, worrying.
What part of speech is troubling?
Troubling can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near troubling in the dictionary

  1. troublespot
  2. troublespots
  3. troublest
  4. troubleth
  5. troublin'
  6. troubling
  7. troublingly
  8. troublings
  9. troublous
  10. troublously
  11. troublousness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: troubling (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.

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