angst
n. uncountablen. a strong feeling of worry, fear, or stress about your life or the state of the world. It is often used to describe the deep unhappiness teenagers feel as they grow up.
n. a feeling of deep anxiety or dread, often regarding the human condition or the state of the world. Frequently associated with adolescence or existential philosophy.
The movie captures the angst of being a teenager.
Many young adults feel a sense of career angst as they struggle to find meaningful work in a competitive market.
The novel explores the existential angst of a protagonist who feels increasingly alienated from a society that values material success over spiritual fulfillment.
Borrowed from German Angst or Danish angst; attested since the 19th century in English translations of the works of Søren Kierkegaard. Initially capitalized (as in German and contemporaneous Danish), the term first began to be written with a lowercase "a" around 1940–44. The German and Danish terms both derive from Middle High German angest, from Old High German angust, from Proto-Germanic *angustiz; Dutch angst is cognate. Compare Swedish ångest.