unnerving

/ˈʌnˈnɜːvɪŋ/

unnerving is the present participle and gerund of unnerve.

Meaning of unnerve

unnerve (third-person singular simple present unnerves, present participle unnerving, simple past and past participle unnerved)

To deprive of nerve, force, or strength; to weaken; to enfeeble. Compare enervate.
- to unnerve the arm
To make somebody nervous, upset, alarm, shake the resolve of.
- I was greatly unnerved by the news that my attacker was back in the country.

unnerving (comparative more unnerving, superlative most unnerving)

Causing a deprivation of courage, strength, confidence, etc.
- Presenting 14 unnerving segments, featured phobias include caetophobia (fear of hairs), henophobia (fear of young virgin girls), coprophobia (fear of feces), mysophobia (fear of contamination and germs), mazeophobia (fear of being lost), astrophobia (fear of celestial objects), mageirocophobia...2018 March 7, Chewie, “Artsploitation Acquires ‘A Taste of Phobia’”, in ScareTissue, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2022
- The situation was unnerving, and dangerous.2020 June 15, Eva Holland, “In a Crisis, We Can Learn From Trauma Therapy”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 15 Jun 2020

comparative	more unnerving
superlative	most unnerving

What does unnerving mean?: Unnerving means causing a deprivation of courage, strength, confidence, etc.
What is unnerving the present participle and gerund of?: Unnerving is the present participle and gerund of unnerve.
What part of speech is unnerving?: Unnerving is an adjective.
How do you pronounce unnerving?: Unnerving is pronounced /ˈʌnˈnɜːvɪŋ/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: unnerving (page history and authors); unnerve (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: 2026-09-02

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