1. Forces from the outside world impinging on an individual.
2. The importance or significance attached to a something; emphasis: "Her mother always laid stress on good manners."
3. In phonetics, emphasis in the form of a prominent relative loudness of a syllable or a word as a result of a special effort in speech; such as, pronunciations.
3. In poetry, an accent or emphasis on syllables in a metrical pattern; a poetic beat.
4. The physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; a strain.
5. A load, force, or system of forces producing a strain.
6. A specific response by the body to a stimulus; such as, fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.
7. Physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension: "He said that worry over his job and his wife's health put him under great stress."

Stress is a normal part of life that can help us learn and grow. Conversely, stress can cause people significant problems.

Stress releases powerful neurochemicals and hormones that prepare people for action (to fight or flee). If they don't take action, the stress response can lead to health problems. Prolonged, uninterrupted, unexpected, and unmanageable stresses are the most damaging types of stress.

Many of the ways in dealing with stress; such as, with drugs, pain medicines, alcohol, smoking, and eating, actually are counterproductive in that they can worsen the stress and can make us more reactive (sensitive) to further stress.

Stress can be best managed by regular exercise, meditation, or other relaxation techniques; structured time outs, and learning new coping strategies to create predictability in the lives of people.

The management of stresses depend mainly on the willingness of a person to make the changes necessary for a healthy lifestyle.

1. An electrostatic field acting on an insulator, which produces polarization in the insulator and causes an electrical breakdown if it is raised beyond a certain intensity.
2. An electrostatic area which acts on an insulator.

The field generates polarization in the insulator and causes an electrical breakdown if it is raised beyond a speciic intensity.

How to deal with stress.

1. The phenomenon by which normally isotropic materials are made birefringent (splitting of a light beam into two components, which travel at different velocities) by the application of mechanical stress.
2. A change in the double refraction of a solid material when it is subjected to stress.

A psychological reaction that occurs after a highly stressing event; such as, wartime combat, physical violence, or a natural disaster; and which is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and avoidance of any reminders of the event.

An external force that acts on a body at both ends, parallel to the length, and that if unopposed will tend to elongate it; that is, the material will stretch.

It is a measure of the intensity of the total internal forces acting within a body across imaginary internal surfaces, as a reaction to external applied forces and body forces.