Meaning & use
unease
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Meanings
noununcountable
A mild, nagging worry that something is wrong or may go wrong, without a clear reason.
Grammar: Normally has no plural or article: a feeling of unease, not an unease.
Patterns
- unease about something
- a feeling of unease
- unease among people
A growing sense of unease kept her from sleeping.
There was some unease among the staff about the planned changes.
He felt a flicker of unease when the phone rang late at night.
noununcountableformal
Tension or lack of comfort in a situation or relationship between people or groups.
Grammar: Used for shared feeling in a group: public unease, political unease.
Patterns
- unease over something
- unease between people
Rising prices have caused widespread unease among voters.
An unease between the two neighbors had lasted for years.
Common combinations
- a sense of unease
- A sense of unease settled over the room.
- growing unease
- There is growing unease about the safety of the old bridge.
- feel unease
- I feel unease whenever he talks about money.
- cause unease
- The strange noise caused unease among the passengers.
- public unease
- Public unease over the new tax is easy to see.
- express unease
- Several players expressed unease at the coach's decision.
Synonyms and how they differ
- anxiety
- Anxiety is stronger and may be a medical condition, while unease is a lighter, vaguer discomfort.
- disquiet
- Disquiet is a more formal and literary word for a similar uneasy feeling.
- apprehension
- Apprehension looks ahead to a specific coming event, while unease may have no clear cause.
- worry
- Worry is the everyday, more general word and often points to a specific concern.
Opposites
Word family
- uneasy adjective
- feeling or causing worry or discomfort
- uneasily adverb
- in a worried or uncomfortable way
- uneasiness noun
- the state of feeling uneasy
- ease noun
- freedom from worry or difficulty
Commonly confused: unease or disease?
unease vs disease
Disease is an illness of the body; unease is a feeling of worry. They look similar because both contain 'ease' but they are not related in meaning.
Practice
The silence in the house filled her with a vague ____ that something was wrong.
Choose one answer.
After 'a vague' you need a noun, and unease is the noun. The other choices are adjective or adverb forms, which cannot follow 'vague' in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unease”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.