What does stressing mean?
Stressing is the present participle of stress and is used chiefly to describe the act of emphasizing or drawing special attention to an idea, issue, word, or concern. For example, a report may stress the need for safer working conditions, while a speaker may stress a particular word to make its significance unmistakable. In this sense, stressing does not necessarily involve causing strain; it means attaching importance or rhetorical emphasis. The word can also describe the act of placing someone or something under pressure, as in a situation that involves continually stressing an already overloaded system. This second sense is more formal and less common in everyday speech than the emphasis sense. As an -ing form, stressing follows the normal grammar of present participles: it can follow the auxiliary "be," appear in gerund constructions, or serve as a modifier before a noun. The related forms stress, stressed, stressful, and stressor extend the word's use across noun, verb, and adjective categories.
verbThe present participle of stress, meaning to emphasize or give particular importance to something. It can also mean to subject something or someone to strain or pressure.
- To emphasize or call particular attention to a word, idea, or issue.
- To cause strain, pressure, or anxiety in a person or situation.
"In her speech, she stressed the need for greater care in the workplace."
"The report stresses the importance of protecting vulnerable wildlife."
"Repeatedly stressing the same point eventually made her colleagues uneasy."
Stress comes from the Latin stringere, meaning to draw or bind tight—a fitting origin for a word associated with pressure and tension.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does stressing come from?
Stress developed from the Latin verb stringere, meaning to draw or bind tight, through Old French stress, meaning to press or squeeze. The modern sense of emphasizing or placing importance on something developed by analogy with the physical pressure suggested by the word's earlier meanings. Several English words, including district, distinct, constrain, and stringent, ultimately derive from the same Latin root, although their semantic relationships to stress are less direct.
Related word forms
How stressing is actually used
As the present participle of stress, this form commonly appears in gerund constructions such as "stressing the need for reform." Less commonly, it functions adjectivally in phrases such as "a stressing factor," meaning something that causes strain or anxiety.