stress test

noun

: an electrocardiographic test of heart function before, during, and after a controlled period of increasingly strenuous exercise (as on a treadmill)

Examples of stress test in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Bank of England is conducting stress tests alongside the industry, with deputy governor Sarah Breeden last month highlighting concerns over asset quality, valuation discipline and liquidity. —Hugh Leask, CNBC, 6 May 2026

But after realizing how powerful its latest update was, Anthropic moved to keep it from the public and turn it into a cybersecurity stress test. —Julia Press, Bloomberg, 23 Apr. 2026

First-quarter earnings, now beginning to roll in, will be the first real stress test of whether corporate America’s supply chains and consumer spending have absorbed the blow—or are still absorbing it. —Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 21 Apr. 2026

Detroit should win this series handily, but watching the Pistons’ offense (particularly their outside shooting) get a stress test will be interesting. —Andrew Greif, NBC news, 17 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1955, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for stress test

• abreast
• accessed
• addressed
• appressed
• armrest
• arrest
• assessed
• attest
• backrest
• behest
• bequest
• caressed

Medical Definition

stress test

noun

: an electrocardiographic test of heart function before, during, and after a controlled period of increasingly strenuous exercise (as on a treadmill)