furor
AmericanOther Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of furor
First recorded in 1425–75; from Latin: “a raging”; replacing late Middle English fureor, from Middle French
Explanation
A furor is a strong and sudden reaction, often negative and shared by many people, such as the furor that erupted when Coca-Cola replaced its beloved soft drink with "New Coke" in the 1980s. Like the Latin word furia, which means "passion," a furor involves strong emotion. Not all furors are negative — sometimes a furor is just a fad or a craze that seems to come out of nowhere, like the rubber bracelets every kid in school seemed to start wearing at the exact same second. That bracelet furor? It all started with kids getting excited and saying they just had to have them.
Vocabulary lists containing furor
Hatchet
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Warriors Don't Cry (Abridged)
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Purple Hibiscus
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Winters tried to douse the furor with an initial post on Friday that said Standard Chartered “will continue to speak honestly about the impact of technological change.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
The resulting furor reached the level that “Saturday Night Live” felt the need to chime in over the weekend, pointing out that Chalamet was lobbing stones from inside a glass house.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 9, 2026
It also mixes in archival news reports and interviews with Rushdie detailing the furor in the Islamic world that greeted the publication of his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses."
From Barron's • Jan. 26, 2026
The furor is due to his pointed comments defending an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot a Minneapolis woman driving away from him.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 9, 2026
Harry had forgotten they still had detentions to do in the furor over the points they’d lost.
From "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling
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.
