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• wrath
  wrath

  noun

  strong, stern, or fierce anger; deeply resentful indignation; ire.
• Wrath
  Wrath

  noun

  Cape, a high promontory in NW Scotland: most NW point on mainland.

Trivia Time

In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which classic literary work does Khan quote to Captain Kirk?

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wrath

¹ American  

[rath, rahth, rawth] / ræθ, rɑθ, rɔθ /

noun

1. strong, stern, or fierce anger; deeply resentful indignation; ire.

   Synonyms:

   choler, fury, resentment, rage

2. vengeance or punishment as the consequence of anger.

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adjective

1. Archaic. wroth.

Wrath ² American  

[rath] / ræθ /

noun

1. Cape, a high promontory in NW Scotland: most NW point on mainland.

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wrath ¹ British  

/ rɒθ /

noun

1. angry, violent, or stern indignation

2. divine vengeance or retribution

3. archaic a fit of anger or an act resulting from anger

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adjective

1. obsolete incensed; angry

Wrath ² British  

/ rɔːθ, rɒθ /

noun

1. a promontory at the NW extremity of the Scottish mainland

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Other Word Forms

• wrathless
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of wrath

First recorded before 900; (for the noun) Middle English wraththe, Old English wrǣththo, equivalent to wrāth wroth + -tho -th ¹; (for the adjective) variant of wroth by association with the noun

Explanation

Wrath is great anger that expresses itself in a desire to punish someone: Noah saw the flood as a sign of the wrath of God. Wrath is also used figuratively of things that behave in a violent way: Earthquakes are the wrath of the sea. This noun and the corresponding adjective wrathful are in literary use but are formal or old-fashioned words, that crop up in fantasy fiction or movies set in prehistoric times.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wrath Wrath

But Long Beach wasn’t the only victim of the ocean’s effortless wrath this weekend.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

Of course, as so many 19th-century paintings capture, left out of this telling is that Orestes’ crimes incur the Furies’ wrath.

From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2026

But for one celebrity in China, even a legion of devoted fans was not enough to stave off the wrath of the internet.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

While Oman's neutrality may have exposed it to US wrath, it may have shielded the Sultanate from the regular attacks its neighbours faced.

From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026

The spitting incident, symbolically equivalent to burning the American flag, had apparently earned the government’s wrath.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Other stuff that Comic Con people seemed to agree upon, in no particular order: Grogu is cool, “Rogue One” is the best Star Wars movie and “The Wrath of Khan” is quintessential “Star Trek.”

From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026

Parrish was an experienced ultra-marathon runner and won the Cape Wrath Trail race in 2023, despite only running competitively for a few years.

From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026

In “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” hundreds of little monkeys invaded the raft where Aguirre is half dead, drifting on the Amazon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026

The 30-mile strenuous and pathless trek across mountainous terrain, rivers and boggy ground is part of the Cape Wrath Trail and is normally completed in three days.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2025

That’s when I noticed her eyes darting down to my desk, where my copy of Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedge Woman, with Calista’s fake cover, was sticking out.

From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff