CONCERN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does concern mean? 

• CONCERN (noun)
  The noun CONCERN has 5 senses:

1. something that interests you because it is important or affects you

2. an anxious feeling

3. a feeling of sympathy for someone or something

4. something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness

5. a commercial or industrial enterprise and the people who constitute it

  Familiarity information: CONCERN used as a noun is common.

• CONCERN (verb)
  The verb CONCERN has 2 senses:

1. be relevant to

2. be on the mind of

  Familiarity information: CONCERN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONCERN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something that interests you because it is important or affects you

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

the safety of the ship is the captain's concern

Hypernyms ("concern" is a kind of...):

interest; involvement (a sense of concern with and curiosity about someone or something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "concern"):

affair; matter; thing (a vaguely specified concern)

affairs; personal business; personal matters (matters of personal concern)

part (that which concerns a person with regard to a particular role or situation)

point of honor (a concern that seriously reflects on your honor)

earth; earthly concern; world; worldly concern (the concerns of this life as distinguished from heaven and the afterlife)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An anxious feeling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

care; concern; fear

Context example:

they hushed it up out of fear of public reaction

Hypernyms ("concern" is a kind of...):

anxiety (a vague unpleasant emotion that is experienced in anticipation of some (usually ill-defined) misfortune)

Derivation:

concern (be on the mind of)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A feeling of sympathy for someone or something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Context example:

She felt strong concern for those less fortunate

Hypernyms ("concern" is a kind of...):

fellow feeling; sympathy (sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "concern"):

solicitousness; solicitude (a feeling of excessive concern)

softheartedness; tenderness (a feeling of concern for the welfare of someone (especially someone defenseless))

Antonym:

unconcern (a feeling of lack of concern)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

concern; headache; vexation; worry

Context example:

it's a major worry

Hypernyms ("concern" is a kind of...):

negative stimulus (a stimulus with undesirable consequences)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "concern"):

bugaboo (a source of concern)

burden; encumbrance; incumbrance; load; onus (an onerous or difficult concern)

business (a rightful concern or responsibility)

Derivation:

concern (be on the mind of)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A commercial or industrial enterprise and the people who constitute it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

business; business concern; business organisation; business organization; concern

Context example:

a racially integrated business concern

Hypernyms ("concern" is a kind of...):

enterprise (an organization created for business ventures)

Meronyms (members of "concern"):

division (an administrative unit in government or business)

Domain category:

business; business enterprise; commercial enterprise (the activity of providing goods and services involving financial and commercial and industrial aspects)

Domain member category:

shipping room (a room where goods are packaged and shipped)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "concern"):

carrier; common carrier (a person or firm in the business of transporting people or goods or messages)

underperformer (a business that is less successful than expected)

shipbuilder (a business that builds and repairs ships)

processor (a business engaged in processing agricultural products and preparing them for market)

partnership (the members of a business venture created by contract)

maker; manufacturer; manufacturing business (a business engaged in manufacturing some product)

dealership; franchise (a business established or operated under an authorization to sell or distribute a company's goods or services in a particular area)

business firm; firm; house (the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments)

chain ((business) a number of similar establishments (stores or restaurants or banks or hotels or theaters) under one ownership)

brokerage (the business of a broker; charges a fee to arrange a contract between two parties)

agency (a business or organization that provides a particular service, especially the mediation of transactions between two parties)

• CONCERN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they concern    ... he / she / it concerns   
Past simple: concerned   
Past participle: concerned   
-ing form: concerning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be relevant to

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

bear on; come to; concern; have to do with; pertain; refer; relate; touch; touch on

Context example:

My remark pertained to your earlier comments

Verb group:

advert; allude; touch (make a more or less disguised reference to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "concern"):

center; center on; concentrate on; focus on; revolve about; revolve around (center upon)

apply; go for; hold (be pertinent or relevant or applicable)

affect; involve; regard (connect closely and often incriminatingly)

interest; matter to (be of importance or consequence)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be on the mind of

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

concern; interest; occupy; worry

Context example:

I worry about the second Germanic consonant shift

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The bad news will concern him

Derivation:

concern (something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness)

concern (an anxious feeling)

 Context examples 

Research concerned with the application of biomaterials and the development of novel biomaterials.

(Biomaterials Research, NCI Thesaurus)

Research concerned with the application of biological and physiological principles to clinical medicine.

(Biomedical Research, NCI Thesaurus)

Lonely he had lived, so far as his kind was concerned, and lonely he would continue to live.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It should be differentiated from BIOLOGY, one of its subdivisions, concerned specifically with the origin and life processes of living organisms.

(Biological Sciences, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

The division of the natural sciences that is concerned with the phenomenon of life and vital processes.

(Biological Sciences, NCI Thesaurus)

I knew well—better perhaps than he thought, as far as my poor mother was concerned—and I obeyed him to the letter.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It would probably, as far as St. John was concerned, be a parting for years: it might be a parting for life.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A trained person who is delegated by medical equipment manufacturer to provide technical advice and assistance concerning the routine maintenance and service of equipment produced by the company.

(Medical Equipment Company Technician or Representative, NCI Thesaurus)

A medical specialty concerned with the diagnosis and management of hereditary disorders.

(Medical Genetics, NCI Thesaurus)

Someone had brought the water from the brook, and Lord John was sprinkling my head with it, while Challenger and Summerlee were propping me up, with concern in their faces.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)