highly strung

1. 1.

   being in a tense state

   Synonymsedgyhigh-strungjitteryjumpynervyoverstrungrestiveuptight

   Similartense

Questions about highly strung

What does highly strung mean?

highly strung means "being in a tense state".

What is another word for highly strung?

Close synonyms include edgy, high-strung, jittery, jumpy, nervy. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is highly strung a common word?

highly strung is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.