apprehensive

adjective

ap·​pre·​hen·​sive ˌa-pri-ˈhen(t)-siv How to pronounce apprehensive (audio)
1
: viewing the future with anxiety or alarm : feeling or showing fear or apprehension about the future
… many adults who do not think twice about the risks of driving an automobile are apprehensive about flying.Henry Petroski
2
: capable of understanding or quick to do so : discerning
3
: having awareness or knowledge of something : cognizant
apprehensively adverb
apprehensiveness noun

Did you know?

How has the meaning of apprehensive changed over time?

When Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar “And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive,” he was not using the word apprehensive with the meaning which we so often encounter today (“viewing the future with anxiety or alarm”). The Bard was using the word’s older meaning of “capable of understanding or quick to do so” or “showing insight and understanding.” Apprehensive has shifted its meaning considerably in the seven hundred or so years it has been inhabiting our language. Its earliest meanings had to do with apprehension, to be sure, but it was apprehension meaning “the act of learning,” (a sense that is now obsolete) or “the act or faculty or grasping with the intellect.” The words apprehensive and apprehension both have roots in the Latin words prehendere meaning “to seize.”

Choose the Right Synonym for apprehensive

fearful, apprehensive, afraid mean disturbed by fear.

fearful implies often a timorous or worrying temperament.

the child is fearful of loud noises

apprehensive suggests a state of mind and implies a premonition of evil or danger.

apprehensive of being found out

afraid often suggests weakness or cowardice and regularly implies inhibition of action or utterance.

afraid to speak the truth

Examples of apprehensive in a Sentence

When the Crossroads Rhode Island social services agency switched to a 401(k) retirement plan from a pension last year, it added a feature that made some employees apprehensive. To ensure that as many employees as possible saved for retirement, the Providence nonprofit chose to automatically enroll all its workers into the 401(k) plan and deduct a minimum of 4 percent from their paychecks. Andrew Caffrey, Boston Sunday Globe, 2 Oct. 2005
… Sargent, a shrewder character, was apprehensive about how the portrait would be viewed by the conventional crowds for whom a day out at the Salon was a social fixture in the Paris calendar. He was right. The public saw nothing lovely in this pallid, long- nosed woman with her prominent chin and superior smile. Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review, 28 Sept. 2003
I arrived at my first Lamaze class the same way I showed up for my baby showers and ob-gyn appointments: a little excited, a little apprehensive, but mostly obediently, because it's what you're supposed to do when you're pregnant. Paula Spencer, Parenting, April 1997
I'm fully apprehensive of the options, I assure you.
Recent Examples on the Web Yet only eight cats have been spotted in the U.S. in the last 30 years, and many are apprehensive about adding to this designation. Hayleigh Evans, The Arizona Republic, 1 Mar. 2024 That fact has Detroit fans, including famed artist Eminem, a bit apprehensive. Jon Hoefling, USA TODAY, 14 Jan. 2024 Eventually, all students adapt their driving styles to the ice, and everyone drives with apprehensive confidence. Michael Harley, Forbes, 14 Feb. 2024 Electrify America’s indoor station is intended to attract people who might be apprehensive about buying an EV, especially apartment dwellers in the nearby South Market neighborhood, said Robert Barrosa, the company’s CEO. Tom Krisher, Fortune, 8 Feb. 2024 Electrify America's indoor station is intended to attract people who might be apprehensive about buying an EV, especially apartment dwellers in the nearby South Market neighborhood, said Robert Barrosa, the company's CEO. Tom Krisher, Quartz, 7 Feb. 2024 Military officials reinforce the need for wider mobilization to win the war, but the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is apprehensive about introducing unpopular changes that could end with a drive to mobilize 500,000 new soldiers. Thomas Gibbons-Neff Finbarr O’Reilly, New York Times, 13 Jan. 2024 The historian of messianism Gershom Scholem had been apprehensive about a nation reviving the Hebrew language. Jordan Castro, Harper's Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024 In today’s apprehensive environment, there may be no topic of discussion more fraught than the Israel-Gaza war. Joe Davidson, Washington Post, 7 Dec. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'apprehensive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

see apprehension

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of apprehensive was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near apprehensive

Cite this Entry

“Apprehensive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apprehensive. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

apprehensive

adjective
ap·​pre·​hen·​sive ˌap-ri-ˈhen(t)-siv How to pronounce apprehensive (audio)
: fearful of what may be coming
apprehensively adverb
apprehensiveness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on apprehensive

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