angst

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angst

/ˈæŋ(k)st/
/ˈeɪŋ(k)st/ Canada, US
[ˈɛ̃ŋ(k)st] Canada, US

Rhymes with -æŋkst

Where it comes from

Borrowed from German Angst or Danish angst; attested since the 19th century in English translations of the works of Søren Kierkegaard. Initially capitalized (as in German and contemporaneous Danish), the term first began to be written with a lowercase "a" around 1940–44. The German and Danish terms both derive from Middle High German angest, from Old High German angust, from Proto-Germanic *angustiz; related to anguish, Dutch angst, Swedish ångest.

noun

uncountable Emotional turmoil; painful sadness; anguish. I've begun to regret that we'd ever met / Between the dimensions. / It gets such a strain to pretend that the change / Is anything but cheap. / With your infant pique and your angst pretensions / Sometimes you act like such a creep.
uncountable A feeling of acute but vague anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression, especially philosophical anxiety.
uncountable Fiction focusing on characters experiencing strong emotions and conflicts with other characters. General: a story with a general theme. It is neither romance or angst but may incorporate elements of all other genres.

verb angsts · angsting · angsted

informal, intransitive To suffer angst; to fret. In the second scene, the camera switches to the father listening, angsting, dying inside, but saying nothing.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: grief, heartbreak, anguish, distress, agony, sorrow, terror, fear, dread, anxiety, trepidation, insecurity, concern, anguishment, anhelation, dolour

Translations

Every language

noun emotional turmoil

中文	悲痛 bēitòng
Português	angústia
Français	angoisse
Deutsch	Aufgewühltheit
Română	angoasă
Русский	тоска́ toská, грусть grustʹ

noun feeling of acute anxiety or apprehension

Português	angústia, aflição
Français	angoisse existentielle
Deutsch	Angst
Italiano	paturnie
Русский	трево́га trevóga, беспоко́йство bespokójstvo

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MLA

"angst." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/angst. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

angst. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/angst

Chicago

"angst." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/angst.

BibTeX

@misc{angst_2026,
  title = {angst},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/angst},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}