Alarm

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /əˈlɑːm/

Definitions

1. A sudden feeling of fear or anxiety caused by awareness of danger, or a device that signals such danger through sound or light
2. A state of heightened awareness typically triggered by a perceived threat, or a mechanism that emits sound or light to indicate an emergency or alert situation
3. A feeling of unease or anxiety prompted by potential danger, or an instrument designed to warn individuals through auditory or visual cues

Etymology: The cry that gave "alarm" its meaning was a military command. Old Italian "all'arme!" translates as "to arms!", a call to soldiers to grab their weapons and fall in. The phrase came into Middle French as "alarme," and English borrowed it from there in the Middle Ages as "alarme" or "alarom," still tied to the sense of an armed attack being imminent. Its roots lie in Latin "arma," meaning "arms" or "weapons," the same word that gives English "army" and "armour" through other routes. So the word that now means a jolt of fright began as a shout summoning people to battle, and its emotional sense of sudden danger grew out of that original warning of an attack.

Synonyms: alert, warning, signal, notification, indication

Antonyms: calm, peace, assurance, comfort, reassurance