tirade
Americannoun
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a long angry speech or denunciation
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rare prosody a speech or passage dealing with a single theme
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tirade
1795–1805; < French: literally, a stretch, (continuous) pulling < Italian tirata, noun use of feminine of tirato, past participle of tirare to draw, pull, fire (a shot), of obscure origin
Explanation
A tirade is a speech, usually consisting of a long string of violent, emotionally charged words. Borrow and lose your roommate’s clothes one too many times, and you can bet you’ll be treated to a heated tirade. The noun tirade is related to the Italian word tirata, which means "volley." So imagine a very angry person lobbing harsh words and strings of profanity in your direction when you want to remember what tirade means. Although, tirades don't necessarily have to include bad words — any long, drawn out speech or epic declaration can be called a tirade.
Vocabulary lists containing tirade
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
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The Diary of a Young Girl
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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.
See Examples For:
In the years since it aired, Banks’ infamous tirade, “I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 2026
Manchester City midfielder Rodri called on referees "to be neutral" in a furious tirade after their Premier League title bid suffered another setback following a 2-2 draw at Tottenham.
From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026
Paul stepped on the scales calmly before breaking into a brief, animated and somewhat confusing tirade.
From BBC ● Dec. 18, 2025
The tirade went viral within hours, sparking widespread discussion, memes and commentary across Twitter/X, TikTok and Instagram.
From Salon ● Nov. 15, 2025
I stared at my broken phone, lips pressed together to prevent an angry tirade.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
In a better world, perhaps he’d have had a change of heart and repented of his increasingly intolerant tirades.
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
The more immediate question is whether Warsh can survive his first months in office without the tirades and confrontation Powell endured for years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
Few if any of even Kim Jong-un’s looniest tirades match these posts for their wild-eyed savagery.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
Eye-popping tirades in his native Serbian towards them were a regular sight.
From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2025
Joaquin had heard some epic tirades about that cat in his two years in their home.
From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway
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.
