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perturbed

adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,351 of 15,258neutral

Perturbed means made anxious or uneasy. Deeply perturbed, not in the least perturbed, perturbed by the news.

It is formal and often understated, since saying somebody was perturbed usually means rather more than it says. In physics a perturbed orbit is one disturbed by another body, which is the technical sense.

Definitions of perturbed

  1. 1adjectiveperturbedMade anxious or uneasy.C1

    “She seemed perturbed by the strange phone call and wouldn't say who it was.”

perturbed is a state.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *per-

  2. Proto-Indo-European

    *(s)twerH- — to agitate, stir up; to urge on, propel

  3. Ancient Greek

    τῠ́ρβη — confusion, disorder, tumult

  4. Latin

    perturbāre

  5. Old French

    perturber

  6. Middle English

    perturben — to disturb (someone) mentally, disquiet; to cause disorder to (something), confuse; to hinder (something)

  7. English

    perturb

  8. English, today

    perturbed

Built from

  • perturbō · Latin — to confuse; to alarm, disturb, trouble, perturb
  • turbō · Latin — to agitate, disturb, unsettle, perturb; to upset
  • turba · Latin — disorder, disturbance, turmoil

perturb comes from Late Middle English perturben (“to disturb (someone) mentally, disquiet; to cause disorder to (something), confuse; to hinder (something)”), from Old French perturber, and from its Latin perturbāre, the of perturbō (“to confuse; to alarm, disturb, trouble, perturb”), from per- + turbō (“to agitate, disturb, unsettle, perturb; to upset”) (from turba (“disorder, disturbance, turmoil”) (possibly from Ancient Greek τῠ́ρβη (“confusion, disorder, tumult”), either from qsb-grc, or Proto-Indo-European (s)twerH- (“to agitate, stir up; to urge on, propel”)) + -ō).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

perturbed in the wild

  • In the physical sciences, relaxation usually means the return of a perturbed system into equilibrium.

    Relaxation (physics)

  • In these methods, a reacting system initially at equilibrium is perturbed rapidly and then observed as it relaxes back to equilibrium.

    Temperature jump

  • The uncertainty parameter U is introduced by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) to quantify the uncertainty of a perturbed orbital solution for a minor planet.

    Uncertainty parameter

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the turbō family

perturbed

perturbed — used about once every 8,568 pages · #11,351 · point at the bar for the others

  • unperturbed