qualm
4 synonyms for qualm, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A feeling of worry, doubt or fear.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Etymology
Perhaps from Middle English qualm, cwalm (“death, sickness, plague”), itself from Old English cwealm (West Saxon: "death, disaster, plague"), ūtcualm (Anglian: "utter destruction"), from Proto-West Germanic *kwalm (“killing, death, destruction”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to stick, pierce; pain, injury, death”...
Full origin of qualm →