Meaning & use
nervous excitement
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Meaning
noununcountable
A feeling of being both anxious and eagerly thrilled at the same time.
Grammar: Uncountable; no plural. Use 'a feeling of nervous excitement' or 'with nervous excitement'.
Patterns
- a feeling of nervous excitement
- with nervous excitement
- nervous excitement about something
- nervous excitement at the thought of something
She waited backstage with nervous excitement before her first performance.
There was a mood of nervous excitement in the crowd as the results were announced.
He felt a rush of nervous excitement when he opened the acceptance letter.
Common combinations
- a feeling of nervous excitement
- A feeling of nervous excitement spread through the classroom.
- with nervous excitement
- The children opened their gifts with nervous excitement.
- nervous excitement about
- There was nervous excitement about the upcoming trip.
- a mixture of nervous excitement
- Her voice showed a mixture of nervous excitement and fear.
Synonyms and how they differ
- anticipation
- Focuses on looking forward to something, often without the anxious part; 'nervous excitement' includes worry.
- jitters
- Informal, means nervousness, usually before an event; it lacks the positive thrill of 'nervous excitement'.
- butterflies
- Informal, refers to the physical feeling in your stomach when nervous; 'nervous excitement' is the whole emotional state.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: nervous excitement or nervous breakdown?
nervous excitement vs nervous breakdown
A serious mental health crisis, not a feeling of excitement. Don't mix the two.
Practice
She felt a surge of ______ excitement as she stepped onto the stage.
Choose one answer.
'Nervous' is the adjective that modifies 'excitement'. 'Nervousness' is a noun and cannot come before another noun in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “nervous excitement”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.