different between perplexity vs anxiety

English

Etymology

perplex +? -ity, from Middle French perplexité or post-classical Latin perplexitas ‘entanglement’, from perplexus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /p??pl?ks?ti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /p???pl?ks?di/

Noun

perplexity (countable and uncountable, plural perplexities)

1. The state or quality of being perplexed; puzzled or confused.
2. Something that perplexes.
   • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (Canongate 2006), page 149:

     The Emperor, who was by then a focus of unresolvable perplexities, stood providing a strongly contrary appearance.

3. In information theory, a measurement of how well a probability distribution or model predicts a sample.

Translations

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.