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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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.
Though some activists demanded Wasserman leave his post as LA28 chair and called for a Games boycott, there has been no apparent reduction in sponsorships or ticket sales because of the furor.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 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
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
This reviewer is a big fan of Mr. Nesbitt, who generates a singular strain of furor.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 30, 2025
Lewis Strauss, who had succeeded Dean as AEC chairman, unjustly labeled the boat a likely “Red spy ship,” intensifying the furor in Japan and creating a very public black eye for the American testing program.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
