Anxiety is a noun word that means to be anxious, while nervousness refers to a state of being nervous. The words "anxiety" and "nervousness" are synonymous in meaning when used in some contexts. Anxiety means an unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, obsession, apprehension, and nervousness. You can use the word to explain an uneasy desire or some uncertain events. The term nervousness, on the other hand, means to be easily alarmed or agitated, or anxious. It refers to being unrelaxed or uncalm. However, they have some significant differences between them. Anxiety usually comes before nervousness in some events. For example, you can be anxious to enter college, but by the time you get to college, you started becoming nervous. This means that the words might not always depict a negative meaning. It can also mean something positive. Another word that can be used exactly as nervousness, but not commonly used is nervosity.
When you say nervousness, you are referring to the feeling that you may get when you know that there is something that you are going to experience wherein you know that there is uncertainty. For example, you are not sure if you are going to win the contest so you are nervous about it. You do not know how it will go and if you would be able to push through with it. When you say “anxiety,†you are referring to almost the same feeling but the thing is that you will begin to feel how nervous you are physical. You will start to feel that you are having a hard time breathing. There are times when the physical symptoms that you will experience are very intense.