# trouble

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈtɹʌb.əl/ · frequency rank #1,707

## Definitions
1. A distressing or dangerous situation.
2. A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation.
3. A person liable to place others or themselves in such a situation.
4. The state of being troubled, disturbed, or distressed mentally; unease, disquiet.
5. Objectionable feature of something or someone; problem, drawback, weakness, failing, or shortcoming.
6. Violent or turbulent occurrence or event; unrest, disturbance.
7. Efforts taken or expended, typically beyond the normal required.
8. Difficulty in doing something.
9. Health problems, ailment, generally of some particular part of the body.
10. A malfunction.
11. Liability to punishment; conflict with authority.
12. A fault or interruption in a stratum.
13. Wife. Clipping of trouble and strife.
14. An unplanned, unwanted or undesired pregnancy.

## Etymology
Verb is from Middle English troublen, trouble, borrowed from Old French troubler, trobler, trubler, metathetic variants of tourbler, torbler, turbler, from Vulgar Latin *turbulō, from Latin turbula (“disorderly group, a little crowd or people”), diminutive of turba (“stir; crowd”). The noun is from Middle English trouble, troble, from Old French troble, from the verb.

## Easily confused with
- **troupe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trouble-vs-troupe)
- **Troubles** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trouble-vs-troubles)
- **troubled** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trouble-vs-troubled)
- **treble** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/treble-vs-trouble)
- **tremble** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tremble-vs-trouble)
- **Trimble** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trimble-vs-trouble)

## Common misspellings (10)
`rtouble`, `toruble`, `trobule`, `troubble`, `troubel`, `troublle`, `troulbe`, `trrouble`, `truoble`, `ttrouble`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/trouble