stressed and stressful

[frankuanhsi]

To whom which kindly respond,
I just got confused to these two words. According to my mother-tongue dictionary, they have the same definition. But I felt strange to hear "I have been stressful for days." How do "stressful" and "stressed" differ?

Best regards,
Francis

[oishii]

I found these citations in a dictionary

Stressed... adj.

1: suffering severe physical strain or distress; "he dropped out of the race, clearly distressed and having difficulty breathing"; "the victim was in a bad way and needed immediate attention"

2: subject to or undergoing extreme stress, as from working too much. in a state of extreme difficulty, pressure, or under strain

Stressful... adj.
1: full of or subject to stress <stressful situations>
2: extremely irritating to the nerves; "nerve-racking noise"; "the stressful days before a war"; "a trying day at the office" [syn: nerve-racking, nerve-wracking, trying]

I think one key difference that I see is that 'stressed' often refers to the person (or thing) undergoing the distress while 'stressful' is used to refer to the situation (thing) causing the stress.

So, a day can be 'stressful' in that it is full of tension and pressures and leaves the person feeling 'stressed' (all worn out and tense and under tremendous strain).

Hope this explanation helped to clear up the confusion.


.