What's the difference between alarm and consternation?

Alarm


Definition:

  • (n.) A summons to arms, as on the approach of an enemy.
  • (n.) Any sound or information intended to give notice of approaching danger; a warning sound to arouse attention; a warning of danger.
  • (n.) A sudden attack; disturbance; broil.
  • (n.) Sudden surprise with fear or terror excited by apprehension of danger; in the military use, commonly, sudden apprehension of being attacked by surprise.
  • (n.) A mechanical contrivance for awaking persons from sleep, or rousing their attention; an alarum.
  • (v. t.) To call to arms for defense; to give notice to (any one) of approaching danger; to rouse to vigilance and action; to put on the alert.
  • (v. t.) To keep in excitement; to disturb.
  • (v. t.) To surprise with apprehension of danger; to fill with anxiety in regard to threatening evil; to excite with sudden fear.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) More evil than Clocky , the alarm clock that rolls away when you reach out to silence it, or the Puzzle Alarm , which makes you complete a simple puzzle before it'll go quiet, the Money Shredding Alarm Clock methodically destroys your cash unless you rouse yourself.
  • (2) Which must make yesterday's jobs figures doubly alarming for the coalition.
  • (3) Luciana Berger, Labour shadow secretary for mental health, also expressed alarm.
  • (4) The Cambridge-based couple felt ignored when tried to raise the alarm about the way their business – publisher Zenith – was treated by Lynden Scourfield, the former HBOS banker jailed last week, and David Mills’ Quayside Corporate Services.
  • (5) Not only was an alarming amount of fissile material going missing at the company, Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (Numec), but it had been visited by a veritable who's-who of Israeli intelligence, including Rafael Eitan, described by the firm as an Israeli defence ministry "chemist", but, in fact, a top Mossad operative who went on to head Lakam.
  • (6) Talking ahead of a UN climate summit in Peru next month, Kim said he was alarmed by World Bank-commissioned research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, which said that as a result of past greenhouse gas emissions the world is condemned to unprecedented weather events.
  • (7) The most egregious failure was by WHO in the delay in sounding the alarm,” said Prof Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
  • (8) "We are alarmed to see the government is even wavering about continuing its programme of tracing, testing and destroying infected young ash trees.
  • (9) Privacy advocates argue this reflects an alarming ease of access, even though agencies should make every effort to ensure the invasion of privacy is justified by the importance to the public of solving a crime or recovering money.
  • (10) There was no looking back and as Hardouvelis nervously looked on – at times relieved, at times alarmed – it was quite clear that there was no stepping back either.
  • (11) Suffice to say, it was a long, difficult haul with various scares and alarms along the way.
  • (12) Severe overloading can increase microdamage alarmingly, its repair by BMUs too, and can cause woven bone formation, anarchic resorption and a regional acceleratory phenomenon.
  • (13) The literature on the possible risk of myasthenia gravis complicating pregnancy and delivery is sparse and partly contradictory but some of the reports on the number of perinatal and neonatal deaths are alarming.
  • (14) The second cause for alarm is more real – the insistence on imposing exemplary, or punitive, damages on those who don't join the regulator (and, in some circumstances, even those who do).
  • (15) The stimulus-response combination was classified into 4 categories according to SDT response: hits, misses, false alarms (FAs) and correct rejections (CRs).
  • (16) The interval distributions of neurons in isolated cerebral cortex resembled those of neurons in the intact cortex of an alarmed animal.
  • (17) The clinicians were asked to choose from a list the device that produced the alarm.
  • (18) On Monday, the interior minister, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, said the alarm had been raised immediately, but local media have cited prison sources saying it took half an hour for police to begin the search for Guzmán.
  • (19) The bank's speciality in debt instruments such as mortgage-related securities caused alarm as early as last summer.
  • (20) in the US the last ten years have witnessed an alarming recrudescence involving vast strata of the population and especially children, although this is masked by the paucity of reports, as is the case also in Italy.

Consternation


Definition:

  • (n.) Amazement or horror that confounds the faculties, and incapacitates for reflection; terror, combined with amazement; dismay.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) All of the hardware complications were managed without undue difficulty, and although they were a source of consternation to the surgeon, they did not affect the patients adversely.
  • (2) Although he said he wished ITV “well”, Edwards’ accusation of “creative handling of audience figures” caused particular consternation at the commercial channel.
  • (3) He is like a Sir Bobby Charlton and Denis Law who I remember watching – the whole club here is a legend.” Martino was certainly correct when he said during the build up – probably to the consternation of the promoter – that there was no way the match would have any bearing on this year’s Ballon d’Or.
  • (4) Tsipras, who made an official visit to Moscow in April to discuss the project, has made improved ties with the fellow Orthodox state a central plank of his two-party coalition’s foreign policy – much to the consternation of the EU.
  • (5) Gove's comments are likely to cause consternation in Germany, where politicians are keen to stress the lessons learned from two world wars and the role that European integration has played in promoting peace.
  • (6) To the consternation of some of Pakistan’s European donors the country abandoned an informal moratorium on the death penalty and has so far executed more than 300 death row prisoners.
  • (7) The proposed implementation of a similar system in Australia, also called Cleanfeed, has caused consternation among civil rights campaigners.
  • (8) For these reasons, I am voting to remain.” Beckham’s defence of the EU might once have caused consternation over the family breakfast table.
  • (9) After complaining about the way black flood victims were portrayed in the media, West finished up by saying: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Co-presenter Mike Myers , who tried to stay on-script, looked suitably consternated as the camera cut away.
  • (10) Akinfeev's punt upfield caused consternation in a City defence that never seems the same when Vincent Kompany, still sidelined with a thigh injury , is absent.
  • (11) Grief, consternation about the loss of attractivity and disfigurement of the body could be found in 50 of them.
  • (12) Trump’s decision to hold a protocol-trampling conversation with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen last Friday and his subsequent Twitter attacks on China have caused consternation in Beijing .
  • (13) Green measures took up only a few minutes of the chancellor's hour-long budget speech, and though some green groups were pleased that Osborne was not openly scornful of environmental protections – his rhetoric in previous speeches has been severe, slamming environmental regulations as a "burden" on business - there was consternation at some of his pledges, including airport expansion in south-east England and new roads.
  • (14) Under Mitchell, DfID announced an overhaul of the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), the UK's development finance arm, appointing a new chief executive on a salary significantly lower than that of her predecessor , whose generous package caused consternation.
  • (15) Alexakis reeled off the myriad austerity measures that have been driven, often to widespread consternation from MPs, through the Greek parliament.
  • (16) It’s the culmination of a long and illuminating day spent with Davey, who to general surprise (and some consternation among those who thought he was ill-qualified) took over as Radio 3 controller earlier this year, having previously been chief executive of Arts Council England .
  • (17) Causing some consternation locally is the new Aam Aadmi (common man) party, which is challenging many of the fundamental principles of Indian politics .
  • (18) Such clear evidence of rigging is likely to cause consternation in western capitals, from where there is strong pressure on President Hosni Mubarak to embrace some democratisation.
  • (19) The most detail we have had so far comes from Wikileaks, which leaked chapters on intellectual property proposals that have caused consternation online.
  • (20) Mocking the consternation among progressives, a conservative film reviewer at Rupert Murdoch's New York Post agreed: Zero Dark Thirty is, he wrote, "a clear vindication for the Bush administration's view of the war on terror" that "subtly presents President Obama and by extension the entire Democratic establishment and its supporters in the media as hindering the effort to find Bin Laden by politicising harsh interrogation techniques".