different between threat vs anxiety

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: thr?t, IPA^(key): /???t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English threte, thret, thrat, thræt, threat, from Old English þr?at (“crowd, swarm, troop, army, press; pressure, trouble, calamity, oppression, force, violence, threat”), from Proto-Germanic *þrautaz, closely tied to Proto-Germanic *þraut? (“displeasure, complaint, grievance, labour, toil”), from Proto-Indo-European *trewd- (“to squeeze, push, press”), whence also Middle Low German dr?t (“threat, menace, danger”), Middle High German dr?z (“annoyance, disgust, horror, terror, fright”), Icelandic þraut (“struggle, labour, distress”), Latin tr?d? (“push”, verb).

Noun

threat (plural threats)

1. An expression of intent to injure or punish another.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3

     There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats.

2. An indication of potential or imminent danger.
3. A person or object that is regarded as a danger; a menace.

Usage notes

Adjectives at least commonly used along with the noun: existential, possible

Derived terms

• idle threat

Related terms

• threaten
• threatening

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English threten, from Old English þr?atian (“to press, oppress, repress, correct, threaten”). Akin to Middle Dutch dr?ten (“to threaten”).

Verb

threat (third-person singular simple present threats, present participle threating, simple past and past participle threated)

1. (transitive) To press; urge; compel.
2. (transitive, archaic) To threaten.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.vii:

     An hideous Geant horrible and hye, / That with his talnesse seemd to threat the skye […]

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, V. i. 37:

     O yes, and soundless too; / For you have stolen their buzzing, Antony, / And very wisely threat before you sting.

3. (intransitive) To use threats; act or speak menacingly; threaten.

Anagrams

• Hatter, hatter, rateth, that're

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.