worries

verb

present tense third-person singular of worry
1
as in fears
to experience concern or anxiety they worried for days about whether the loan would be approved

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in concerns
to trouble the mind of; to make uneasy those strange noises outside the house worry me

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of worries Bryant worries his neighbors simply got caught up in the wrong situation. — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 July 2026 Any arrangement where schools pay male athletes all or most of the money could raise Title IX, Title VII and Equal Pay Act worries. — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 27 July 2026 Torres worries that too much deli meat will be bad for the health of her grandchildren, ages 12, 15 and 16. — ABC News, 25 July 2026 Similar worries trouble Muslim communities, whose mandatory morning recitations conclude precisely at dawn. — Marc Ramirez, USA Today, 25 July 2026 Procurement rewards the cheapest compliant bid, so the unpatched, unsupported systems everyone worries about are exactly what the buying process keeps choosing. — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 23 July 2026 While it's been four years since the Bulldogs have raised a national championship trophy, that isn’t a part of the current landscape of college athletics that worries the Georgia coach. — Trey Wallace Outkick, FOXNews.com, 21 July 2026 The germ Eickhorst worries about most is molluscum contagiosum, a common childhood skin virus. — Angela Haupt, Time, 20 July 2026 Sabath similarly worries we’re actively being trained to lack the patience and ability to take action during hard times. — Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 20 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for worries
  1. fears
  2. concerns
  3. stresses
  4. bothers
  5. frets
  6. alarms
  7. troubles
  8. disturbs
Verb
  • Wells' family fears his death will be written off as an accidental drowning, citing conflicting witness accounts and unusual cell phone activity.
    — N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today, 25 July 2026
  • Historically, fears surrounding novels, radio, and television proved largely unfounded, though each gradually reshaped human habits.
    — Michael Edmondson, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026
Definition of fears
Verb
  • The evidence primarily concerns coffee consumed in customary amounts (8-10 ounces).
    — Robert Glatter, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026
  • The main point of divergence between the National Assembly and the Senate concerns the scope of the platforms to be banned.
    — Samuel Petrequin, Fortune, 20 July 2026
Definition of concerns
Verb
  • The National Park Service’s Hike Smart guidance stresses that hydration and weather awareness are two of the most common failure points on bucket-list hikes, especially in desert parks and at high elevation.
    — Ashley Lynch, Miami Herald, 24 July 2026
  • Morton, looking out for Circe, stresses that transforming Odysseus’ men was not purely vengeful.
    — Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2026
Definition of stresses
Verb
  • Refresh the space that bothers you most before making bigger visibility decisions.
    — Tarot.com, New York Daily News, 20 July 2026
  • If that bothers you, then a significant projection for Bo Nix’s season will make your skin crawl.
    — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 6 July 2026
Definition of bothers
Verb
  • Kate, for her part, frets that her grieving husband is lacking male companionship.
    — Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 15 June 2026
  • Baelor’s brother, Maekar — who actually delivered the killing blow — also frets over how Duncan has changed the course of history.
    — Noel Murray, Vulture, 23 Feb. 2026
Definition of frets
Verb
  • He becomes increasingly consumed by the otherworldly dimension, which alarms his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve).
    — Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 30 May 2026
  • The focal point of escalating concern is oldest son Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) whose increasingly erratic behavior alarms those around him, not only for his safety but others as well.
    — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 7 May 2026
Definition of alarms
Verb
  • One death especially, that of his young cousin Sinon (Elliot Page), troubles him most of all.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 15 July 2026
  • The asymmetry—Anthropic penalized while OpenAI was not—is what troubles him most.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 24 June 2026
Definition of troubles
Verb
  • Tilling or plowing in the summer disturbs the soil's delicate ecosystem and exposes moist soil to rapid water loss.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 24 June 2026
  • The pier in Michigan City’s Washington Park disturbs the natural flow of sand along the lakeshore, creating new land east of the pier but starving beaches to the west, an erosion problem repeated by other manmade structures that jut out into Lake Michigan.
    — Doug Ross, Chicago Tribune, 15 June 2026
Definition of disturbs

Browse Nearby Words

worriers
worries
worrisome
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Worries.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/worries. Accessed 28 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on worries

Nglish: Translation of worries for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of kludge

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

Why does English have so many silent letters?

Every Letter Is Silent, Sometimes: A-Z List of Examples
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 24

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
chain-question-mark
Missing Link Quiz July 2026 Five seconds to figure out the word that fits bot...
See All