furor
AmericanEtymology
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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Across Five Aprils
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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.
Though most polls show that Britons still largely support the crown, the furor around Andrew has given antimonarchists cause to celebrate.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026
The same anger over lost oil wealth and a monarch in the pocket of foreign interests boiled over again in the 1970s, this time driven by religious furor from the charismatic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
From Barron's • Mar. 5, 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
Following The Atlantic breaking the news of the Hegseth DOD’s troubling security lapse, Vance returned to the chat to joke about the furor surrounding Signalgate.
From Salon • Dec. 4, 2025
The children’s furor matches that of the Met Bongs.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
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.
