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:
"No one flew into a rage, because after all, this is due to natural disaster," the businesswoman, who had to reschedule her flight to Tuesday, told AFP Sunday.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
And unlike Jobs, who famously flew into fits of rage when displeased, Cook maintains a much more approachable personality.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026
In 2026, prediction markets are all the rage, with traders betting on the short-term outcome of just about anything imaginable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
“It manifests into rage, into how unfair this was, how I didn’t get a say in what happened. I didn’t get to stop it from happening. I had no choice in the matter,” Jake said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
But my rage had caused a dam, trapping the tears inside.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
The characters in her books doggedly seek the joys of love and art while the apocalypse rages in the background.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 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
Every Emmy season, a battle rages over which network or streamer earns the most nominations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
The colt spent three years plunging around the track in devil-possessed rages and nurturing a vendetta against the hapless assistant starters assigned to hold his head in the doorless starting gate.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
As the country raged that the Broncos got hosed, the man in charge of the team took the high road.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 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
In some ways, the situation is reminiscent of an argument that raged in the 1950s over “who lost China.”
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
Wildfires have raged across Europe over the two weeks, primarily in France and Spain, where more than 330,000 people were evacuated.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Aeneas came back with a large army of Etruscans in time to save the camp, and furious war raged.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Hydropower worker Surendra Dowluri, 33, from India's Andhra Pradesh state, described how raging water swamped the Upper Trishuli-1 site, where he was working.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
Characters forced to make do either lash out, like raging overreactors on Lee Sung Jin’s petty, brutal “Beef,” or fall into holding patterns, like the unlucky in love leads of Issa Rae’s dramedy “Insecure.”
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
Raging at another exit, raging that when the chips were down too many of his fellow players panicked and allowed themselves to be overrun, raging at professional pride being trampled underfoot for all to see.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Never mind that this salt-and-pepper-haired coach with the Portuguese accent had also constructed a reputation as a sore loser, a bitter complainer, and raging egomaniac.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
His face was still, but Torak sensed a battle raging beneath his mask-like features.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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.
