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
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.
Simon unleashed a tirade at Coach executive Todd Kahn during their first meeting in the first decade of the 2000s, after the handbag maker tried to renege on deals to open stores in Simon malls.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 23, 2026
A disheveled man sick of endless waiting launched into an eloquent tirade ending with Samuel Beckett -- "You know what happened in the story of Godot? He never came."
From Barron's • Feb. 16, 2026
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
The Elmo hack follows an incident earlier this month where X’s chatbot, Grok, also went on an antisemitic tirade.
From Salon • Jul. 14, 2025
Silent Tom’s tirade lasted a full five minutes.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
