worrying

adjective

wor·​ry·​ing ˈwər-ē-iŋ 

ˈwə-rē-

: causing worry : creating reason for worry : troubling

a worrying trend/development

a worrying question

The presence of the knife on the stage of the murder was a worrying circumstance for Wilson.

—Mark Twain

worryingly adverb

When the secretary returned, she handed us an envelope that looked worryingly official …

—Caroline Alexander

… money held by households has risen at a worryingly slow rate over the past year …

—The Economist

Examples of worrying in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This all adds up to a worrying picture, where companies are racing to build a kind of AI that would be very dangerous. —Nate Soares, The Atlantic, 15 Sep. 2025

Take the return of vulnerability down the left side that had been such a worrying feature in last month’s home games against West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield Wednesday. —Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2025

This week brought another worrying data point that probably deserves more attention. —Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 9 Sep. 2025

The numbers for 5Action’s 9pm game were more worrying with an average of only 22,000 tuning in for the juicy Packers vs Lions matchup. —Max Goldbart, Deadline, 8 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1817, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for worrying

• currying
• hurrying
• scurrying