mindmap root((痛苦)) distress implies an external cause of great physical or mental strain and stress and is likely to connote the possibility of or the need for relief: news of the hurricane put everyone in great ~. suffering impiles conscious endurance of pain or distress and often a stoical acceptance: the ~ of earthquake victims. misery stresses the unhappiness attending distress or suffering and often connotes sordidness, abjectness, or dull passivity: the poor live in ~ every day. agony suggests pain too intense to be borne by body or mind: in ~ over their daughter's suicide.