What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Turmoil vs Distress - What's the difference?

turmoil | distress |

As nouns the difference between turmoil and distress

is that turmoil is a state of great disorder or uncertainty while distress is (Cause of) discomfort.

As verbs the difference between turmoil and distress

is that turmoil is to be disquieted or confused; to be in commotion while distress is to cause strain or anxiety to someone.

turmoil

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • A state of great disorder or uncertainty.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
  • , title=]http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18181971 England 1-0 Ukraine] , passage=Oleg Blokhin's side lost the talismanic Andriy Shevchenko to the substitutes' bench because of a knee injury but still showed enough to put England through real turmoil in spells.}}
  • Harassing labour; trouble; disturbance.
  • * Shakespeare
  • And there I'll rest, as after much turmoil , / A blessed soul doth in Elysium.
  • *, chapter=7
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.}}

    Synonyms

    * chaos, disorder

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To be disquieted or confused; to be in commotion.
  • (Milton)
  • (obsolete) To harass with commotion; to disquiet; to worry.
  • * Spenser
  • It is her fatal misfortune to be miserably tossed and turmoiled with these storms of affliction.

    distress

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • (Cause of) discomfort.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1833 , author=John Trusler , title=The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings , chapter=8 citation , passage=To heighten his distress , he is approached by his wife, and bitterly upbraided for his perfidy in concealing from her his former connexions (with that unhappy girl who is here present with her child, the innocent offspring of her amours, fainting at the sight of his misfortunes, being unable to relieve him farther), and plunging her into those difficulties she never shall be able to surmount.}}
  • Serious danger.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1719 , author=Daniel Defoe , title=Robinson Crusoe , chapter=13 citation , passage=I immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress , and that they had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these gun for signals of distress, and to obtain help.}}
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1759 , author=Voltaire , title=Candide , chapter=42 citation , passage=At length they perceived a little cottage; two persons in the decline of life dwelt in this desert, who were always ready to give every assistance in their power to their fellow-creatures in distress .}}
  • (legal) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
  • (legal) The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.
  • * Spenser
  • If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.
  • * Blackstone
  • The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.

    Verb

    (es)
  • To cause strain or anxiety to someone.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1827 , author=Stendhal , title=Armance , chapter=31 citation , passage=She respects me, no doubt, but has no longer any passionate feeling for me, and my death will distress her without plunging her in despair.}}
  • (legal) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.
  • *
  • To treat an object, such as an antique, to give it an appearance of age.
  • She distressed the new media cabinet so that it fit with the other furniture in the room.