What it means
مضطرب (moztareb) means anxious, agitated, or restless. The word comes from Arabic, a Form VIII active participle built on the root ض-ر-ب. Its related noun, اضطراب (ezterâb), meaning anxiety or agitation, is widely used in formal Persian, including medical and psychological writing. مضطرب is a formal register word: in everyday spoken Persian, people are more likely to say نگران (negarân, worried) or simply استرس دارم (estres dâram, I have stress). A near synonym is پریشان (parishân), which adds a sense of scattered or distraught to the anxious feeling.
How to use it
- از نتیجهی امتحان مضطربم. (az natije-ye emtehân moztarebam.) “I am anxious about the exam result.”
- چرا اینقدر مضطرب به نظر میرسی؟ (cherâ inghadr moztareb be nazar miresi?) “Why do you seem so agitated?”
- صدای مضطرب مادرم رو شنیدم. (sedâye moztareb-e mâdaram ro shenidam.) “I heard my mother’s anxious voice.”
- پزشک گفت حالتش مضطربانهست. (pezeshk goft hâlatash moztarebâne-ast.) “The doctor said his state is anxious.”
Cultural note
While مضطرب appears in formal writing, literature, and broadcast journalism, most Iranians in daily conversation reach for the simpler نگران or the borrowed استرس to express the same feeling. The related noun اضطراب, however, has entered clinical Persian fluently and is the standard term in psychology and psychiatry. Classical Persian poets such as Hafez and Rumi used the concept of اضطراب to describe the soul’s restless longing, giving the word a literary dimension that مضطرب inherits when used in written or elevated contexts.