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.

Woe vs Anxiety - What's the difference?

woe | anxiety |

As nouns the difference between woe and anxiety

is that woe is grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity while anxiety is an unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event.

As an adjective woe

is (obsolete) woeful; sorrowful.

woe

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.
  • * Milton
  • Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, / Sad instrument of all our woe , she took.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • [They] weep each other's woe .
  • A curse; a malediction.
  • * South
  • Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?

    Derived terms

    * in weal or woe * woeful * woe is me

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) woeful; sorrowful
  • * Robert of Brunne
  • His clerk was woe to do that deed.
  • * Chaucer
  • Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed.
  • * Spenser
  • And looking up he waxed wondrous woe .

    Anagrams

    *

    anxiety

    Noun

    (anxieties)
  • An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1907, author=
  • , title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=4 citation , passage=The inquest on keeper Davidson was duly held, and at the commencement seemed likely to cause Tony Palliser less anxiety than he had expected.}}
  • * 2005 , .
  • But the other, because he's been immersed in arguments, gives the appearance of harbouring considerable anxiety and suspicion that he's ignorant of those matters he presents himself to others as an expert on.
  • An uneasy or distressing desire (for something).
  • I was anxious to get into the office before Henderson called from New York.
  • (pathology) A state of restlessness and agitation, often accompanied by a distressing sense of oppression or tightness in the stomach.
  • Synonyms

    * care, solicitude, foreboding, uneasiness, perplexity, disquietude, disquiet, trouble, apprehension, restlessness, distress