adjective
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full of wrath; raging or furious
-
resulting from or expressing wrath
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of wrathful
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at wrath, -ful
Explanation
If you're wrathful, you're absolutely furious, brimming with anger. Enraged gods of many different religions are often described as wrathful. The wrathful kind of anger is so hardcore that it is often reserved for deities and royalty — a wrathful god might cause a flood, and a wrathful queen might scream, “Off with her head!” You can also use this adjective figuratively for something wild and stormy, like the wrathful lashing of rain on the deck of your sailboat. The Old English root of wrathful means "twisted or tormented."
Vocabulary lists containing wrathful
Mad Infinitum: Synonyms for "Angry"
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To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapters 1–11
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Angry
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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.
A few scenes later, when Aang demands to be released so he can save the Northern Water Tribe, Bumi becomes wrathful.
From Salon • Feb. 28, 2024
“Despite his belief in sacrifice, renunciation and non-harm, the Mahatma became a wrathful, vengeful god in the tales of his acts, raining feces on a lawyer who defied his call for noncooperation,” Subin writes.
From Washington Post • Jan. 28, 2022
She squeezed huge penalties out of Apple Inc. and Google, rousing wrathful tweets from U.S.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 10, 2019
But in stressing the legitimate grievances Goneril and Regan have toward their wrathful, capricious father, the production underplays what Cordelia knows about her sisters’ natures long before they reveal the full extent of their depravity.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2019
Moments later, the few that were brave enough to remain flee with wrathful hisses.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
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.
