angst
angst Lexical Profile
angst Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A deep, persistent feeling of anxiety, dread, or apprehension, typically an unfocused concern about the human condition or the state of the world in general.
"The novel captures the existential angst of a generation coming of age during a period of rapid social upheaval."
An acute but often temporary feeling of worry, insecurity, or frustration over a specific personal situation or everyday problem.
"Her poems are filled with the familiar teenage angst of unrequited love and feeling misunderstood by her parents."
Word Nuance & Usage
While originally borrowed from existential philosophy and psychoanalysis to denote profound existential dread, in everyday English 'angst' is often used more lightly or ironically (especially in phrases like 'teenage angst') to describe self-absorbed fretfulness.
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the early 20th century from German Angst ('fear, anxiety') and Danish angst, popularized through translations of the works of Søren Kierkegaard and Sigmund Freud; ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *angh- ('tight, painfully constricted'), making it a cognate of Latin angustus and English 'anger' and 'anguish'.