Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Qualm |
QualmNoun1. Uneasiness about the fitness of an action. 2. A mild state of nausea. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "qualm" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1591. (references) |
Etymology: Qualm \Qualm\, noun. [from Anglo-Saxon expression cwealm death, slaughter, pestilence, akin to Old Saxon Old High German. qualm. See Quail to cower.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Qualm A sudden fit of illness, or sickly languor. Hence, a qualm of conscience = a twinge or uneasiness of conscience. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: QualmSynonyms: misgiving (n), queasiness (n), scruple (n), squeamishness (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Disease | Ague, angina pectoris, appendicitis; Asiatic cholera, spasmodic cholera; biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague; blennorrhagia, blennorrhoea; blood poisoning, bloodstroke, bloody flux, brash; breakbone fever, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever; heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy; hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis; bronchocele, canker rash, cardialgia, carditis, endocarditis; cholera, asphyxia; chlorosis, chorea, cynanche, dartre; enanthem, enanthema; erysipelas; exanthem, exanthema; gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness; grip, grippe, influenza, flu; hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw; measles, mumps, polio; necrosis, pertussis, phthisis, pneumonia, psora, pyaemia, pyrosis, quinsy, rachitis, ringworm, rubeola, St. Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma, syntexis, tetanus, tetter, tonsillitis, tonsilitis, tracheocele, trachoma, trismus, varicella, varicosis, variola, water qualm, whooping cough; yellow fever, yellow jack. |
Fear | Noun: fear, timidity, diffidence, want of confidence; apprehensiveness, fearfulness; Adjective: solicitude, anxiety, care, apprehension, misgiving; feeze; mistrust; (doubt); suspicion, qualm; hesitation; (irresolution). |
Unbelief Doubt | Doubt; (uncertainty); skepticism, scepticism, misgiving, demure; distrust, mistrust, cynicism; misdoubt, suspicion, jealousy, scruple, qualm; onus probandi. |
Unwillingness | Scrupulousness, scrupulosity; qualms of conscience, twinge of conscience; delicacy, demur, scruple, qualm, shrinking, recoil; hesitation; (irresolution); fastidiousness. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Qualm |
| Non-English Usage: "Qualm" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. German (fug, fume, smoke), Vietnamese (conscience). |
| Domain | Title |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Qualm" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Qualm" is used about 33 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 33 | 60,273 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "qualm": qualm of homesickness ♦ water qualm. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
qualm | 7 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "qualm"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | trazirë (bewilderment, commotion, convulsion, disorder, dustup, fuss, hustle, outbreak, pother, queasiness, queasy, riot, ruction, shindy, turbulence, turmoil, upheaval), shqetësim (affliction, agitation, anxiety, bother, care, concern, discomfort, discomposure, displeasure, disquiet, disquietude, distemper, distress, disturbance, fash, fear, feeling, fidget, flurry, fret, Fry, harassment, inconvenience, inquietude, moil, perturbation, plague, preoccupation, restlessness, solicitude, trepidation, trouble, tumult, turmoil, uneasiness, unrest, vexation, worry), e përzier (feeling of nausea, qualmishness, queasiness, queasy, spew), dyshim (distrust, doubt, dubiety, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitation, misgiving, query, suspicion, suspiciousness), brejtje (corrosion, crunch, edacity, gnawing, nibble). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مقس, وخز الضمير (compunction), غثيان (disgust, nausea, queasiness, sickness, squeamishness), تهوع, اخذ, إمساك (abstention, hold, parsimony), إحساس مفاجئ بمرض, إرتياب مفاجئ, إشمئزاز (abhorrence, horror, loathing, nausea, obsession, pout, recoil, reluctance, repugnance, repulsion, revulsion, sway). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | стеснение (abashment, constraint, stenosis, uneasiness), угризение (compunction, remorse, twinge), скрупули (scruple), колебание (demur, dubiety, falter, faltering, fluctuation, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitation, hovel, indecision, oscillation, quandary, scruple, vacillation, variation, wabble, wavering, wobble), гадене (nausea, queasiness, queerness, retch, retching, sickness), опасение (apprehension, contemplation, fear, misgiving, uneasiness), моментно колебание, малодушие (cowardice, yellow), безпокойство (alarm, anxiety, bother, care, concernment, discomposure, disquiet, disquietude, disturbance, fash, harassment, inconvenience, inquietude, malaise, plague, ruffle, trepidation, trouble, uneasiness, upset, whim-wham, worriment, worrit, worry), пристъп на малодушие, прилошаване (sinking). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 疑虑. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | slabost (debility, faintness, feebleness, frailty, impotence, infirmity, invalidity, thinness, weak spot, weakness), skrupule (scruples), pochyba (doubt, uncertainty), nevolnost (malaise, nausea, qualmishness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | ناخوشی همه جاگیر (Pestilence), حالت تهوع (Nausea), تردید (Doubt, Hang, Hesitancy, Indecision, Query, Scruple, Skepticism, Suspicion, Uncertainty, Vibration), عدم اطمینان (Misgiving), بیم (Awe, Care, Dread, Misgiving, Phobia, Scare, Scruple, Scrupulosity). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | scrupule, nausée (queasiness), malaise (queasiness), inquiétude, doute (query, question), appréhension. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | übelkeit (morning sickness, nausea, queasiness, rankness, sickness, squeamishness, undesirability). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | συνειδητόσ (conscious), ναυτία (nausea, nauseousness, seasickness, travel sickness), ενδοιασμόσ (compunction, demur, diffidence, scruple), αναγούλα (nausea, queasiness, seasickness, sea-sickness, sickliness), τύψη (compunction, remorse, scruple), δισταγμόσ (demur, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitation, indecision, scruple). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | קיפת מצפון (compunction, scruple), קיפת לב (heartbeat, remorse, repentance). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | aggály (anxiety, query, scruple, solicitousness, solicitude). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | rasa cemas. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | nausea (disgust, feel sick, nausea, queasiness, sickness), esitazione (demur, haw, hesitance, hesitancy, hesitation, shilly shally), apprensione (anxiety, apprehension, misgiving, suspense). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | taaue (inert, motionless; unemployed, out of work; retch, passive, quiescent, squeam), neuaashid (awkwardness, discontentedness, grievance, malaise), drogh-ourys (apprehension, misgiving, qualmish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | almquay vertigem (dizziness, giddiness, maziness, stagger, swim, vertigo), tontura (dizziness, giddiness, maziness, stagger, swim, vertigo), sensação de enjôo, náusea (queasiness), enjôo (motion sickness, nausea, queasiness, satiety, scunner, seasickness). (various references) remuşcare (compunction, contrition, penitence, regret, remorse, Ruth, worm of conscience). (various references) сомнения, опасение (anxiety, apprehension, apprehensions, fear, misgiving), приступ тошноты, приступ малодушия. (various references) zlo (bad, evil, harm, ill, misdoing, sick), sumnja (doubt, mistrust, question, sneaking suspicion, suspicion), muka (anguish, annoyance, limbo, nausea, need, queasiness, torment). (various references) náusea (nausea, retching). (various references) oro (agitation, alarm, anxiety, botheration, concern, discomposure, disquiet, disquietude, disturbance, flutter, harassment, inquietude, jimjams, nervousness, perturbation, solicitude, trepidation, trouble, unease, uneasiness, unrest, worriment, worry). (various references) vicdan rahatsızlığı (guilty conscience), vicdan azabı (compunction, guilty conscience, pangs of remorse, pressure of conscience, pricks of conscience, regret, remorse, sting of conscience, twinge of conscience), mide bulantısı (nausea, nauseation, queasiness, sickness), huzursuzluk (discomfort, disquiet, disquietude, fermentation, fidget, hump, inquietude, restiveness, restlessness, sleeplessness, trouble, uneasiness, unrest), endişe (agitation, angst, anxiety, apprehension, care, concern, disquiet, disquietude, disturbance, doubt, fear, fears, fret, inquietude, perturbation, preoccupation, scruple, solicitude, stew, suspense, uneasiness, worry), bulantı (nausea, nauseation, queasiness, sickness). (various references) сумнів (challenge, demur, doubt, dubiety, hesitance, hesitancy, impeachment, misdoubt, offence, offense, query, question, scruple), нудота (aridity, aridness, distaste, nausea, queasiness, sickness, wamble), занепоко"ння (concern, discomposure, fash, harass, harassment, restlessness, stew, uneasiness, worriment). (various references) sự thấy khó chịu trong người mối lo ngại, sự nôn nao, sự bu"n nôn (nausea, qualmishness, queasiness), nỗi day dứt, mối e sợ nỗi băn khoăn dằn vật. (various references) gloes (pang). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Dutch | 700-Modern | kwalm. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "qualm": qualmier, qualmiest, qualmish, qualmishly, qualmishness, qualmishnesses, qualms, qualmy. (additional references) | |
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"Qualm" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: iqilm, Qaim, qal, qalm, qawaali, Qemal, Qianli, Qila, quaim, qual, quald, quale, qualf, qualg, qualk, qualmt, Qualo, qualp, quals, qualt, qualum, quam, quame, quamy, quarm, quawl, queal, queam, quelk, quelm, quelp, quely, quhame, quiem, Quila, quilb, quilf, quilk, quilm, quiln, quim, qule, quol, quole, quolm, quom, Quwatli, squalm. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-l-m-q-u" | |
-1 letter: alum, maul. | |
-2 letters: amu, lam, lum, qua. | |
-3 letters: al, am, la, ma, mu, um. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-l-m-q-u" | |
+1 letter: qualms, qualmy. | |
+3 letters: qualmier, qualmish. | |
+4 letters: equimolar, qualmiest, quitclaim, squamosal. | |
+5 letters: lambrequin, maquillage, qualmishly, quitclaims, squamosals, squamulose. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Anagrams 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.