rage
Americannoun
-
angry fury; violent anger (sometimes used in combination).
a speech full of rage;
incidents of road rage.
- Antonyms:
- calm
-
a fit of violent anger.
Her rages usually don't last too long.
-
fury or violence of wind, waves, fire, disease, etc.
- Synonyms:
- turbulence
-
violence of feeling, desire, or appetite.
the rage of thirst.
-
a violent desire or passion.
-
ardor; fervor; enthusiasm.
poetic rage.
-
the object of widespread enthusiasm, as for being popular or fashionable.
Raccoon coats were the rage on campus.
-
Archaic. insanity.
verb (used without object)
-
to act or speak with fury; show or feel violent anger; fulminate.
-
to move, rush, dash, or surge furiously.
-
to proceed, continue, or prevail with great violence.
The battle raged ten days.
-
(of feelings, opinions, etc.) to hold sway with unabated violence.
idioms
noun
-
intense anger; fury
-
violent movement or action, esp of the sea, wind, etc
-
great intensity of hunger, sexual desire, or other feelings
-
aggressive behaviour associated with a specified environment or activity
road rage
school rage
-
a fashion or craze (esp in the phrase all the rage )
-
informal a dance or party
verb
-
to feel or exhibit intense anger
-
(esp of storms, fires, etc) to move or surge with great violence
-
(esp of a disease or epidemic) to spread rapidly and uncontrollably
-
informal to have a good time
Synonym Usage
See anger.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
ragesimple
-
ragessimple
-
have ragedperfect
-
has ragedperfect
-
am ragingprogressive
-
are ragingprogressive
-
is ragingprogressive
-
have been ragingperfect progressive
-
has been ragingperfect progressive
Past
-
ragedsimple
-
had ragedperfect
-
was ragingprogressive
-
were ragingprogressive
-
had been ragingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rage
First recorded in 1250–1300; (for the noun) Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin rabia, Latin rabiēs “madness” ( see rabies ( def. )), derivative of rabere “to be mad, rave”; verb derivative of the noun
Explanation
Rage is a really intense anger. Some frustrated drivers let their emotions boil over into road rage when another car cuts them off, for example. If you're full of rage, you're full of anger — powerful, extreme, sometimes even violent anger. Rage can also be a verb: you might rage against something you hate or as the poet Dylan Thomas pleaded, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." Things that rage are out of control, like a raging, roaring fire or a wild storm. Another meaning involves the latest, greatest trend — you'd say it's "all the rage."
Vocabulary lists containing rage
Emotions on Display
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Christmas Carol Vocab: A Lyrical Lexicon
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Instead of "Said": Vexed Verbiage to Express Anger
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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:
Our joy is an act of revolution because we are constantly in a state of anxiety and rage because there’s always something coming at us.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
All of this left Cuban Ambassador Bruno Rodríguez sputtering in rage as he banged the desk and accused the American of failing to observe “decorum,” and calling him “a liar.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
"A rage that has been accumulated in the youth for the past 10 years," she added.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
I have spent years filled with both compassion and rage for Thomas’ jurisprudence.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026
In a flash of rage and with a mighty, bellering growl Fred turned on the wire and bit it.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
As the debate rages, in Las Vegas a purpose-built arena is ready to welcome more than 2,000 invited guests to an event that will be streamed live to those curious enough to watch.
From BBC ● May 20, 2026
But they have proved unwilling while the conflict rages.
From Barron's ● Mar. 29, 2026
“Each day the war rages, we see a reckoning slowly approaching.”
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 24, 2026
While that litigation rages, Core is also competing with a new generation of private members clubs that have proliferated since the Covid pandemic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026
The strong salty ocean rushes at us in pale broken rages.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
Ever since Disney introduced Lightning Lanes in 2021, debate has raged over whether letting people pay for shorter waits is savvy crowd management or nickel-and-diming that divides people by income.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Even as the war raged, thousands have been gathering in big cities across Ukraine for three consecutive days to protest at the removal of popular defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
But the debate raged for many years thereafter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
The room swayed and samba-danced to the pulse as the play raged on.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
He raged against the system, if only to his own disciples, calling for a day when scythes would have no limits on gleaning.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
“The raging battle continues to take barrels off the market,” said Robert Yawger, a commodity specialist at Mizuho Securities USA, in an emailed note Tuesday.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Out-of-control wildfires were raging Thursday in the Canadian province of Ontario, sending dangerous smoke spewing into the United States where millions of people were exposed to the unhealthy air.
From Barron's ● Jul. 16, 2026
Investors have been cheering the raging bull market for years—three years and nine months, to be precise—with the S&P 500 having more than doubled during that period.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
The consumer-price index sank 0.4% last month to mark the first drop since May 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was in its early months and raging globally.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
The Witchlings were pinned: the Cursed Toads and the Nightbeast in front of them, the raging water behind them growing wilder as Barbatos waved his hands in the air and mumbled an incantation.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
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.
