Fraught

WORD OF THE DAY

fraught / adjective / FRAWT

Definition
1: full of or accompanied by something specified —used with a situation fraught with danger
2a: causing or characterized by emotional distress or tension
2b: uneasy
3a (archaic): laden
3b: well supplied or provided
4 (chiefly Scotland): load, cargo, freight

Examples
“Today, campus life is much more stressful, fraught, time-stressed and anxiety-ridden. Compared to high school, college is far more academically rigorous and represents the very first time that many students have ever earned less than an A.”
 — Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, 2 Jan. 2023

Determining what makes one species different from another is a fraught, complicated process even among living animals, the researchers emphasized.
—Katie Hunt, CNN, 25 July 2022

Did You Know?
An early instance of the word fraught occurs in the 14th century poem Richard Coer de Lion, about England’s King Richard I:
“The drowmound was so hevy fraught 
That unethe myght it saylen aught”

It is about a large fast-sailing ship so heavily fraught—that is, loaded—that it can barely sail. The use is typical for the time; originally, something that was fraught was laden with freight.
For centuries, fraught continued to be used in relation to loaded ships, but its use was eventually broadened for situations that are heavy with tension, emotion, or some other weighty characteristic.