strong, stern, or fierce anger; deeply resentful indignation; ire.
vengeance or punishment as the consequence of anger.
angry, violent, or stern indignation
divine vengeance or retribution
archaic a fit of anger or an act resulting from anger
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
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“These things survived the wrath of fire,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
A giant new hospital being built in the Brittany city of Nantes for example will have air-conditioning in only half its rooms, provoking the wrath of medical trade unions.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
A lot of ink has been spilled in recent months predicting how new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh would face the wrath of President Donald Trump unless he could quickly deliver more interest-rate cuts.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026
This was too much even for habitually supine Republican senators, who took their wrath out on Mr. Blanche.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
Most of the guests went on eating and drinking and discussing Bilbo Baggins’ oddities, past and present; but the Sackville-Bagginses had already departed in wrath.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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
Herzog, already a giant of New German Cinema with movies including “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” and “Stroszek” under his belt, revered Murnau’s film.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2024
After his two previous starts to the novel in late May 1938, Steinbeck began rapidly writing what would become the iconic book about the Dust Bowl: "The Grapes of Wrath."
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2024
When Tisquantum approached the Pilgrims and identified himself by that sobriquet, it was as if he had stuck out his hand and said, Hello, I’m the Wrath of God.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
