rage
Americannoun
-
rages
plural
-
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)
-
rages,
present (3rd person singular)
-
raged,
past participle, past
-
raging
present participle
-
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:
He was an empty vessel into which hundreds of millions of people in America and around the world poured their confusion, rage and desire.
From Salon ● Oct. 19, 2026
People with names like the other six accused also complained about rage spamming and threats.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
Agents are all the rage, from Meta’s Muse to xAI’s Grokbot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
As Mihai, Stan puts across a low-simmering rage at being put in the position of defending himself at all, while grappling with how to maintain what he sees as his natural role of patriarchal control.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
I feel all the rage, the depression, and the suffering.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
When Berenger stumbles into the office, a debate rages about whether news of a stray pachyderm can be credited.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Feelings bubbled up uncontrollably: inconsolable howls in infancy, classroom meltdowns in childhood, rages in adolescence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
The debate about social media and child safety rages on, as Meta faces a slew of similar lawsuits similar to this one.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
But as the debate over the division of housework rages, many argue that Japanese fans' signature stadium cleanups should be encouraged, not nitpicked at.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
“Now the king’s suspicions are aroused, and he is as dangerous as a baited bear. It is bad enough that Hamlet rages like a madman.”
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
The fires have raged across forests and peatland but also palm oil and timber plantations supplying multinational firms.
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026
Some 175,000 people in Indonesia have suffered from respiratory illness since August, its health ministry said, as it continues to battle wildfires that have raged for weeks.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
So far, little has seemed to faze the stock market, which has traded near record highs all year even as war raged in the Middle East and inflation inched higher stateside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
As the fire raged, mother and son used garden hoses to defend their property as nearby dwellings were torched.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
He raged at his cowardice, but that did no good.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
With World War Two raging, Casement became attracted by the potential of an Irish-German alliance as a way of securing full Irish independence.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
About 45 minutes outside of Kansas City, Kan., a fight is raging in a small town over plans to build an AI data center.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
Air pollution in part of Singapore hit the country's "very high" band on Wednesday while East Timor shut schools, as haze from forest fires raging in Indonesia causes a regional crisis.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
Huang’s comments come as a debate over AI safety has been raging across Silicon Valley over the past month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
Instantly, the streets became raging rivers filled with wreckage—chunks of wood and metal and glass, overturned motorcars and wagons.
From "I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, 1919" by Lauren Tarshis
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
