frustrating

frustrating — adjective

1. describes a situation, task, or experience that makes you feel upset or irritate

1.adjectiveB1
Definition

describes a situation, task, or experience that makes you feel upset or irritated because you are unable to make progress or get the result you hoped for

Example

Omar found the slow internet connection deeply frustrating while working from home.

collocation: deeply frustrating

It was frustrating for the children when the rain cancelled their trip to the beach.

impersonal construction: it was frustrating for [someone] when...

Common collocations
  • deeply frustrating
  • extremely frustrating
  • incredibly frustrating
  • frustrating experience
  • frustrating situation
  • frustrating delay
  • frustrating part
  • frustrating process
Synonyms
  • annoying

    milder and more general; describes anything that causes slight irritation, not necessarily a blocked goal

  • exasperating

    stronger and more intense; describes something that tries your patience to the breaking point

  • maddening

    very strong and informal; describes something that makes you extremely angry, often used for repeated annoyances

  • discouraging

    focuses on loss of hope or confidence rather than irritation; implies you may give up

Antonyms
  • satisfying

    gives a feeling of achievement and pleasure from completing something successfully

  • rewarding

    provides a sense of worthwhile accomplishment, often after effort

Grammar Patterns

frustrating (for [someone]) to [do something]

frustrating that [clause]

find [something] frustrating

Usage Note

Frequently used in the pattern 'find + it + frustrating + that-clause' or 'find + something + frustrating'. Unlike 'frustrated', which describes a person's emotional state, 'frustrating' describes the situation or thing that causes that state.

Common Mistakes

I am frustrating with my job.
I am frustrated with my job.
'frustrating' describes the cause (the situation), while 'frustrated' describes how a person feels.
It was frustrating about waiting in line for so long.
It was frustrating to wait in line for so long.
use the to-infinitive pattern, not 'about' + gerund.
I am frustrating that the bus is late again.
It is frustrating that the bus is late again.
use 'it' as the subject, not 'I', since the situation causes the feeling.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words describe negative reactions to a situation, but they differ in intensity and focus. 'Annoying' is the mildest — a dripping tap or a notification sound can be annoying without blocking an important goal. 'Frustrating' implies you are actively trying to achieve something and something is in your way. 'Exasperating' is stronger still; it describes a situation that has worn out your patience completely, like filling out the same government form three times with no result. 'Maddening' is informal and very intense — the feeling that something is driving you crazy, often from repetition or senselessness. 'Discouraging' shifts the focus from irritation to loss of hope: a frustrating exam might be one where you knew the answers but ran out of time; a discouraging exam is one where you studied hard but still did poorly, making you want to give up. Choose the word that best matches the strength and type of negative feeling you want to convey.

annoying ↗exasperatingmaddeningdiscouraging

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinEnglish

Frustrating comes from the Latin verb frustrari, meaning 'to deceive or disappoint,' which is built on frustra, meaning 'in vain' or 'without effect.' The core idea — that effort produces no result — has remained constant since the word entered English in the 1400s, first as a verb (to frustrate) and later giving rise to the adjective frustrating.