Synonyms for trouble
- noun
- verb
Most common
difficulty pain distress anxiety bother inconvenience disturbance affliction
Synonyms by meaning
Noun
1. Difficulty — the state of being troubled, disturbed, or distressed mentally; unease, disquiet
difficulty, pain, distress, anxiety, hardship, grief informal, torment, concern, suffering, misery, care, calamity, misfortune, adversity, sorrow, woe, matter, effort, pains, tribulation, perplexity, anguish
2. Bother — objectionable feature of something or someone; problem, drawback, weakness, failing, or shortcoming
bother, inconvenience, annoyance, vexation, embarrassment, nuisance, grievance, failing, impediment, irritation, drawback, defect, mischief dated
3. Disturbance — violent or turbulent occurrence or event; unrest, disturbance
disturbance, fuss, turmoil, ruckus, commotion, ado, uproar, stir, fracas, unrest, to-do, brouhaha
4. Affliction — health problems, ailment, generally of some particular part of the body
Other
worry, problem, discomfort, cross, while, predicament, dilemma, uneasiness, curse, hole
Verb
1. Hassle — in weaker sense, to bother or inconvenience
hassle, annoy, put out, pester, agitate, stir up, aggravate, bug, exasperate, vex dated, molest dated, discommode rare, incommode formal rare
2. Plague — to mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed
3. Give someone grief — to take pains (to do something); to bother
Definitions
- n. 1
The state of being troubled, disturbed, or distressed mentally; unease, disquiet.
- n. 2
Objectionable feature of something or someone; problem, drawback, weakness, failing, or shortcoming.
Your trouble is that you quit too readily.
- v. 1
To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed.
What she said about narcissism is troubling me.
- v. 2
In weaker sense: to bother or inconvenience.
I will not trouble you to deliver the letter.
Example sentences
- pain By and large, women can bear pain better than men.
- anxiety I'm having an anxiety attack and I don't know why.
- difficulty I had difficulty getting a ticket for the concert.
- hardship They had to endure great hardship during the war.
- inconvenience Tom was sorry for the inconvenience he had caused.
- annoyance To our great annoyance, he barged in on our party.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| trouble | rising | |
| pain | rising | |
| anxiety | rising | |
| difficulty | falling | |
| hardship | falling | |
| inconvenience | falling |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- bug1, woe1, ado2, vex1
- 4 letters
- care1, move1, pain1, hole1, stir1, fuss1, fret1
- 5 letters
- while1, cross1, worry2, harry2, upset2, grief1, curse1, pains1, annoy2, angst1
- 6 letters
- matter2, effort2, bother2, misery3, plague1, sorrow2, defect2, unrest2, hassle2, harass2, uproar2, ruckus2, muddle2, molest2
- 7 letters
- problem2, concern2, anxiety4, illness2, failing2, dilemma3, disturb2, turmoil2, torment2, anguish2, agitate3, afflict2
- 8 letters
- disorder3, distress2, hardship2, nuisance2, mischief2, calamity4, drawback2, disquiet3, brouhaha3, vexation
- 9 letters
- suffering3, complaint2, adversity4, annoyance3, grievance2, commotion3, aggravate3, incommode
- 10 letters
- difficulty4, discomfort3, misfortune3, irritation4, affliction3, impediment4, uneasiness4, perplexity4, exasperate4, discommode
- 11 letters
- disturbance3, predicament4, tribulation4
- 13 letters
- embarrassment4, inconvenience4
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (ado2 = 2 syllables).