Example Sentences

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Recent Examples of distressful And yet behind the distressful scene, a young man continues to butcher an animal. Kaely Monahan, The Arizona Republic, 27 Mar. 2024 Despite the distressful news of Houston’s death that day, the event went forward to create a space for guests to mourn. Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN, 2 Feb. 2024 But the results, Mr. Chancellor observes, were not as distressful for the rich as a medieval canonist might have hoped. Adam Rowe, WSJ, 12 Aug. 2022 Justice Harry Blackmun, who wrote for the Roe-affirming majority in 1973, included a brief list of the potential detriments of forcing women to carry pregnancies to term: Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and future. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, 6 July 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for distressful
Adjective
  • And that helped to resolve that weird uneasy tension in my head.
    Maria Reva September 3, Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2025
  • The safe-haven asset offers investors a hedge against an uneasy financial environment as a sharp hiring slowdown coincides with a steady uptick of inflation, according to analysts.
    Max Zahn, ABC News, 2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • This was a senseless and tragic loss.
    Hollie Silverman, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Nicknamed Lucky and Lucky II, two baby pterosaurs who came to a tragic end.
    Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • That's depicted in a disturbing, if somewhat inscrutable, scene.
    Esther Zuckerman, Time, 6 Sep. 2025
  • Possibly, something disturbing will occur because someone has decided to make emotional demands on you.
    Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • This was the unfortunate and tragic outcome.
    Rachel Wolf, FOXNews.com, 9 Sep. 2025
  • This latest ‘oopsie’ also fits an unfortunate pattern.
    Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The exchange grew more tense when Brzezinski raised concerns about ICE vehicles parked outside a Spanish-language Mass in Boston, saying such actions spread fear in immigrant communities.
    Heather Hunter, The Washington Examiner, 9 Sep. 2025
  • The arrests also raised alarm in Seoul, further complicating tense US-South Korea relations over investments agreed to in their trade deal, the Financial Times reported.
    Ben Smith, semafor.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • In turn, chickens have become a powerful — if not somewhat unsettling — example of how acutely humans can dictate the evolutionary destiny of other species.
    Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Having previously allowed Alessia Russo, Ona Batlle and Mary Earps to run their contracts into the final stages — a situation the club say was unsettling for the squad — United were determined not to make the same error.
    Charlotte Harpur, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Maddie is talented, warm, funny and kind but also anxious, plagued with low self-esteem cultivated by a traumatic childhood.
    Jourdain Searles, HollywoodReporter, 7 Sep. 2025
  • The other may be unsure, though not opposed, but anxious about leaving family and community.
    Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Against Świątek, in two nervous moments, one of them on match point, net cords had given her safe harbor.
    Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2025
  • The district’s disparate parts would be connected largely by two-lane highways cutting through steep slopes of places such as the Modoc National Forest, where nervous drivers must beware of a lack of guardrails.
    David Mark, The Washington Examiner, 5 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Distressful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/distressful. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.

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