Standard Lemma guide

nerve-racking

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /ˈnɝv ˌɹækɪŋ/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: N ER2 V R AE1 K IH0 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Intensely irritating or distressing to the nerves.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

extremely irritating to the nerves

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • nerve-racking noise
  • the stressful days before a war
  • a trying day at the office

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: nerve-wracking, stressful, trying

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

1812.

Across languages

Translations

14 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Cantonese: 令人緊張嘅 /令人紧张嘅 (ling6 jan4 gan2 zoeng1 ge3) — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Danish: nervepirrende — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Dutch: zenuwslopend — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Finnish: hermoja raastava — intensely irritating or distressing
  • German: nervenzerfetzend — intensely irritating or distressing
  • German: nervenaufreibend — intensely irritating or distressing
  • German: nervenzermürbend — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Irish: coscrach — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Norwegian Bokmål: nervepirrende — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: nervepirrande — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Polish: stresujący — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Spanish: estresante — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Spanish: angustioso — intensely irritating or distressing
  • Spanish: angustiante — intensely irritating or distressing