Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Worry for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is worry — a verb and noun, pronounced WUR-ee, IPA /ˈwʌr.i/.
Narrator: To worry is to feel anxious or troubled about something that might happen. As a noun, a worry is a concern or anxious thought.
Narrator: You worry about an exam, a worry keeps you awake, and a kind friend says don't worry — a gentle daily phrase.
Narrator: The word has a fierce old root — Old English wyrgan, to strangle — and it once meant to seize by the throat, as a dog worries its prey.
Narrator: Over centuries that physical sense softened into the mental one: to be gripped not by the throat, but by anxious thought.
Narrator: That old bite survives faintly — a dog still worries a bone, tugging and gnawing at it restlessly.
Narrator: The register is neutral and everyday — one of the commonest emotional words, from light worries to deep ones.
Narrator: Close cousins include fret, fear, and concern, but worry is the warm, everyday word for an anxious mind.
Narrator: Worry is the grip of an anxious thought — once on the throat, now on the mind.
Speaker A: I always worry the night before a flight — silly things, like whether I've packed everything.
Speaker B: Ah, the pre-trip worry. That's the everyday sense — to worry is to feel anxious. Try not to worry; you'll be fine. We all worry sometimes.
Speaker A: And it's a noun too, isn't it? My biggest worry is forgetting my passport.
Speaker B: Exactly. A worry is the anxious thought itself. You've a worry on your mind, or no worries at all. Same word, verb and noun.
Speaker A: What's the difference between worry and fret?
Speaker B: They're close. Worry is the broad word for anxious feeling. Fret is smaller and fussier — to fret is to worry over little things, often restlessly. You worry about big things; you fret over details.
Speaker A: So fret is the fidgety little cousin of worry.
Speaker B: Nicely put. And mind the spelling — w-o-r-r-y, double r. People drop one r. Also, don't overuse worry when you really mean care or concern.
Speaker A: Double r in worry. And it's broader than fret.
Speaker B: Exactly. The cousins are fret, fear, and concern — worry is the everyday heart of them.
Speaker B: Let's look at how worry works in AI prompts. As a word for concerns and anxiety it's great for wellbeing apps, reminders, and support tools.
Speaker A: Worry as a concern to track — building a wellbeing journal?
Speaker B: Exactly. It names an anxious thought to capture. First prompt — a worry journal:
Prompt: Build a worry journal where users log each worry. Let a user write down a worry, rate how big the worry feels, and look back later to see which worry actually came true.
Speaker B: Worry names the entry — the AI builds a calm, reflective journal around it.
Speaker A: The worry journal is clear. What about reminders?
Speaker B: Here:
Prompt: Build a reminder app that takes the worry out of forgetting. Let users set a reminder for any task they worry about, send a gentle nudge before it's due, and clear the worry once it's done.
Speaker A: Worry eased by reminders — practical. For a database?
Speaker B: Try this:
Prompt: Design a worries table for a wellbeing app. Store each worry with a note, a level, and a date, link every worry to the user, and index the level so the biggest worry surfaces first.
Speaker A: Worry records cleanly stored — tidy. For a support chat?
Speaker B: Like this:
Prompt: Build a support chat that listens to a user's worry. Let them share a worry in their own words, reply with calm, kind support for that worry, and suggest one small step for each worry.
Speaker A: Worry met with kindness — useful. And for a dashboard?
Speaker B: Here:
Prompt: Build a wellbeing dashboard that tracks worry over time. Show how often a user logs a worry, chart whether worry rises or falls each week, and highlight the most common worry theme.
Speaker A: Worry trends shown gently — complete.
Speaker B: One warm word for anxious thoughts. Use worry in a prompt and the AI builds caring wellbeing tools around it.
Worry — meaning in Arabic & definition More W courses GL Dictionary