different between misery vs anxiety

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French miserie (modern: misère), from Latin miseria, from miser. Doublet of misère.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?z(?)??/
• (General American) enPR: m?z??-r?, m?z?r?, IPA^(key): /?m?z(?)?i/
• Hyphenation: mis?ery

Noun

misery (countable and uncountable, plural miseries)

1. Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe.
2. (US and Britain, dialects) A bodily ache or pain.
   • 1868, John Vestal Hadley, Seven Months a Prisoner, page 15:

     [...] and I had a misery in my left breast and shoulder. I was hurt, but knew not how or how much.

3. Cause of misery; calamity; misfortune.
4. (Extreme) poverty.
5. (archaic) greed; avarice.

Synonyms

• see Thesaurus:greed

Derived terms

• put out of one's misery

Related terms

• commiserate
• miser
• miserable

Translations

Anagrams

• Myries

English

Etymology

From Latin anxiet?s, from anxius (“anxious, solicitous, distressed, troubled”), from ang? (“to distress, trouble”), akin to Ancient Greek ???? (ánkh?, “to choke”). See anger; angst.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?(?)?za?.?.ti/
• Rhymes: -a??ti

Noun

anxiety (countable and uncountable, plural anxieties)

1. An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 268a.

     But the other, because he's been immersed in arguments, gives the appearance of harbouring considerable anxiety and suspicion that he's ignorant of those matters he presents himself to others as an expert on.

2. An uneasy or distressing desire (for something).
3. (pathology) A state of restlessness and agitation, often accompanied by a distressing sense of oppression or tightness in the stomach.

Synonyms

• care, solicitude, foreboding, uneasiness, perplexity, disquietude, disquiet, trouble, apprehension, restlessness, distress

Related terms

Derived terms

• hangxiety

Translations

Further reading

• anxiety in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• anxiety in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.