Loading page
say it: TRUHB-uhl
trouble is a noun and verb meaning "a source of difficulty". It is pronounced /ˈtɹʌbəl/ — TRUHB-uhl. It carries 11 recorded senses.
a source of difficulty
“one trouble after another delayed the job”
“what's the problem?”
an angry disturbance
“he didn't want to make a fuss”
“they had labor trouble”
“a spot of bother”
an event causing distress or pain
“what is the trouble?”
“heart trouble”
an effort that is inconvenient
“I went to a lot of trouble”
“he won without any trouble”
“had difficulty walking”
“finished the test only with great difficulty”
to cause inconvenience or discomfort to
“Sorry to trouble you, but...”
take the trouble to do something; concern oneself
“He did not trouble to call his mother on her birthday”
“Don't bother, please”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for trouble come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.