upsetting

upsetting — adjective

1. causing a person to experience emotional pain, worry, or disappointment, often b

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

causing a person to experience emotional pain, worry, or disappointment, often because something bad or unexpected has happened

Example

The news of the factory closing was deeply upsetting for Antonia's entire family.

collocation: deeply upsetting

It was upsetting to see how much the old neighborhood had changed since the fire.

it + be + upsetting + to-infinitive pattern

Common collocations
  • deeply upsetting
  • extremely upsetting
  • very upsetting
  • particularly upsetting
  • quite upsetting
  • emotionally upsetting
  • upsetting experience
  • upsetting news
  • upsetting situation
  • find something upsetting
Synonyms
  • distressing

    more formal, emphasizes mental pain; often used for serious situations like illness or loss

  • troubling

    milder, suggests worry about something unresolved or unclear

  • disturbing

    stronger, implies shock or a sense that something is morally wrong or deeply unsettling

  • heartbreaking

    very strong, specifically about deep sadness related to loss or tragedy

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

be upsetting + to-infinitive

be upsetting + that-clause

be upsetting + for + person

find + noun + upsetting

Usage Note

Frequently used with intensifying adverbs like deeply, extremely, very, and particularly. The cause of the distress (news, event, situation) is usually the subject; the person affected appears after for or in a find + object + upsetting structure. Unlike upset (which describes a person's emotional state: 'She was upset'), upsetting describes the thing that causes the emotion: 'The news was upsetting.'

Common Mistakes

The movie was upsetted me.
The movie was upsetting.
'upsetting' is an adjective, not a past-tense verb form; use 'upset' as the verb: 'The movie upset me.'
I am upsetting to hear the news.
I am upset to hear the news.
'upset' (adjective) describes your own feeling; 'upsetting' describes the thing that causes the feeling.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Distressing, troubling, disturbing, and heartbreaking all describe things that cause negative emotions, but they differ in intensity and flavor. Distressing is slightly more formal than upsetting and emphasizes mental pain — good for serious situations like illness or financial loss. Troubling is milder and suggests unresolved worry: a puzzling comment can be troubling. Disturbing is stronger, often implying shock or moral unease — violent scenes in a film, for example. Heartbreaking is the most intense, used only for deep sadness related to loss or tragedy. For everyday situations, upsetting is the most natural choice: 'The argument was upsetting for everyone.' Use disturbing when something feels wrong beyond simple sadness: 'The footage contained disturbing images of animal neglect.'

distressingtroubling ↗disturbing ↗heartbreaking ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • find something upsetting
  • it is upsetting to
  • it is upsetting that

Prepositions

Etymology

Middle EnglishEnglish

The adjective upsetting is formed from the verb upset (meaning 'to overturn' or 'to disturb') plus the -ing suffix. The verb upset itself comes from Middle English upsetten, a combination of up- and setten ('to set'). The original meaning was 'to set up' or 'to erect,' but by the 17th century it had taken on the sense of 'to overturn' (literally tipping something over). The emotional meaning — 'to disturb someone's peace of mind' — developed in the mid-1800s. The adjective upsetting, describing the thing that causes that disturbance, followed soon after.