as in agitated
feeling overwhelming fear or worry
distraught relatives waiting to learn whether there were any survivors of the plane crash
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of distraught
The Elijah Phillips story McClamrock vividly remembers that day in August when Phillips came into his office distraught.
—
Tribune News Service, Baltimore Sun, 10 June 2026
Both Jesse and Ashley were emotionally distraught and crying throughout the video.
—Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 5 June 2026
The next night, Husband arrived for his shift looking shaky and distraught and breathing heavily.
—Dan Eaton, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 June 2026
The first glimpse at Season Two picks up at that moment and reveals a distraught Julia alone with their baby.
—Joe Otterson, Variety, 1 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for distraught
Tribune News Service, Baltimore Sun, 10 June 2026
Both Jesse and Ashley were emotionally distraught and crying throughout the video.
—Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 5 June 2026
The next night, Husband arrived for his shift looking shaky and distraught and breathing heavily.
—Dan Eaton, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 June 2026
The first glimpse at Season Two picks up at that moment and reveals a distraught Julia alone with their baby.
—Joe Otterson, Variety, 1 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for distraught
Recent Examples of Synonyms for distraught
Adjective
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According to witnesses interviewed by local police, Hall became agitated after taking a significant quantity of drugs.—
Julia Moore,
PEOPLE,
16 June 2026
-
Stammen, who for the first time this season was still agitated after the game, asserted that the pitches by Rodrigurez were merely evidence that the Padres were consistently trying to pitch Henderson inside given his power potential.—
Kevin Acee,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
14 June 2026
Adjective
-
New Delhi, which has become increasingly worried about the safety of its seafarers during the US-Israeli war with Iran, has now urged Washington to halt strikes on shipping vessels.—
Rhea Mogul,
CNN Money,
12 June 2026
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Anthropic is also worried that competitors could use Anthropic’s AI systems to turbocharge their own research — Anthropic uses its own AI systems to help create the next generation of its models.—
Jared Perlo,
NBC news,
11 June 2026
Adjective
-
Sour coffee with cream and rustling umbrellas and frightened tourists, impervious to death.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Dec. 2025
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Deborah Gilmour Smyth leads the Backyard cast as Gladys with an incredible, tour de force performance that begins with joy, laughter and vivaciousness and gradually, over the course of two hours, moves toward frightened, childlike and submissive.—
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
25 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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As catastrophic flooding inundated parts of Texas Hill Country on July 4, dispatchers received multiple frantic 911 calls from Camp Mystic, a Christian sleepaway camp for girls, describing children gone missing and pleading for helicopters to rescue them.—
Marlene Lenthang,
NBC news,
6 Dec. 2025
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Passages in which a lower frame rate makes the image jittery portray the frantic rush of emotion that the two are overtaken by now that fate has reunited them.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
4 Dec. 2025
Adjective
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Children are generally afraid of ghosts, so telling them to be scared of larger bodies is deeply problematic.—
Virgie Tovar,
Forbes.com,
14 June 2026
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The two parties are now scared of their own voters.—
NBC news,
NBC news,
14 June 2026
Adjective
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Because the road into Hunt was unpassable, the Childresses were forced into a monstrous kind of purgatory among other terrified parents at Ingram Elementary School.—
Karen Valby,
Vanity Fair,
16 June 2026
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Her 9-year-old daughter was terrified.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
15 June 2026
Adjective
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Mamdani's win was seen as an upset to the establishment, since the 67-year-old Cuomo is the son of a three-time New York governor and held the position himself for a decade beginning in 2011.—
Rachel Treisman,
NPR,
5 Nov. 2025
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Boise State fans could have been upset when they were upset at home by Fresno State as their season continued to slide away from them.—
Kyle Feldscher,
CNN Money,
5 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Distraught.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/distraught. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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