DictionaryAI

wrath

AUSRATH/ɹæθ/UKROTH/ɹɒθ/

6 meanings of wrath

Practice

  1. 1
    great angernounformaluncountable
    Great anger, or an outburst of great anger.

    The plan to close the library drew the wrath of local residents.

    Nothing could soften the old man's wrath once he learned of the betrayal.

    UsageUsually the wrath of someone: incur, face or draw the wrath of. In everyday talk, anger is plainer.

    Similarfury, rage, ire, indignation, resentment

    Note

    The word is formal and a little grand, at home where the anger is large or the angry party powerful: the wrath of Achilles, the wrath of a whole town. It usually takes of or a possessive, and it needs no human owner, since Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender (1579) blames winter's wrath for a wasted, barren ground.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Edmund Spenser wrote The Shepheardes Calender, published in 1579. en.wikipedia.org
    • The first-edition title page dates The Shepheardes Calender to 1579. en.wikisource.org
    • The poem attributes the wasting of barren ground to winter's wrath; Colin Clout speaks the line. en.wikisource.org
  2. 2
    punishmentnoununcountable
    Punishment, retribution, or vengeance that comes from anger.

    The preacher warned that the wrath of God would fall on the unrepentant city.

    Those who surrendered were spared the king's wrath, but the rest were hanged at dawn.

    UsageMost common in the wrath of God and similar religious or mythic phrases.

    Similarvengeance, retribution, punishment

    Oppositemercy

    Note

    Here anger has turned into action: the wrath of God is what falls on the wicked, not only what God feels. The King James Bible of 1611 calls the ruler a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil, and in Milton's A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle (1637) the wrath of Jove speaks thunder.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Biblical divine wrath includes punishment directed against wrongdoing. en.wikisource.org
    • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. bridwell.omeka.net
    • Romans 13:4 in the King James Bible describes the governing authority as a revenger who executes wrath upon evildoers, using the wording given. en.wikisource.org
  3. 3
    full of angeradjectiveobsolete
    Full of anger; wroth.
    Lovel, seldom angry, was violently wrath with his brother-in-law; and, almost always polite, was at breakfast scarcely civil to Lady Baker.
    1860, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “A Black Sheep”
    I felt wrath with her. My heart so cherished my harmless, defenceless Lilian, that I was jealous of the praise taken from her to be bestowed on another.
    1861, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], A Strange Story
    Note

    The adjective began as a variant of wroth, probably pulled toward the noun's spelling. Shakespeare's Oberon is passing fell and wrath, Spenser's Prince strikes out full wrath, and Milton's old Dragon is wrath to see his kingdom fail; in each it follows its noun or a verb rather than coming before a noun.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The adjective originated as a variant of wroth, probably influenced by the noun wrath. en.wiktionary.org
    • In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck describes Oberon as passing fell and wrath. shakespeare.mit.edu
    • In Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book IV, Canto VIII, the Prince is described as full wrath when striking the Pagan. en.wikisource.org
    • Milton describes the old Dragon as wrath to see his kingdom fail in On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. rpo.library.utoronto.ca
    • In these three examples, adjectival wrath occurs after its referent or a verb, rather than before a noun. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    nounobsoleteuncountable
    Great ardor or passion.
    [T]hey are in the verie vvrath of loue, and they vvill together. Clubbes cannot part them.
    c. 1598, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”
    [I]f you hold your life at any price, betake you to your gard: for your oppoſite hath in him vvhat youth, ſtrength, skill, and vvrath, can furniſh man vvithall.
    c. 1601, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”
    Note

    Shakespeare could stretch the word to any fierce feeling: in As You Like It, two lovers are in the very wrath of love, and clubs cannot part them. The heat stayed while the anger went, so in older plays it is worth hearing passion or eagerness where a modern reader expects rage.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Shakespeare used wrath for intense passion or ardour beyond anger, supporting the suggested historical readings passion or eagerness. en.wiktionary.org
    • In Shakespeare's As You Like It, Act V, scene II, Rosalind describes Oliver and Celia as being in the very wrath of love and says clubs cannot part them. shakespeare.mit.edu
  2. 5
    make angryverbobsoletetransitive
    To make someone angry; to enrage.
    [R]emembre howe by thy cursed synnes thou haste offended and wrathed thy lorde god.
    [1506?], Jacobus van Gruitroede, The Mirroure of Golde for the Synfull Soule
    Note

    The verb took the person angered as its object, much as anger and enrage do now: in Margaret Beaufort's translation of The Mirroure of Golde, a sinner has offended and wrathed the Lord God, and a bishop elsewhere tells a clerk, thou hast wrathed me.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The verb could take the person angered as its direct object. en.wiktionary.org
    • Margaret Beaufort translated The Mirroure of Golde. etheses.whiterose.ac.uk
    • The Mirroure describes a sinner as having offended and angered God, using wrathed transitively. en.wiktionary.org
    • Another devotional text gives a bishop the words thou hast wrathed me, addressed to a clerk. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 6
    verbobsoleteintransitive
    To become angry, sometimes with a particular person.
    God is a righteous judge, strong and patient, and God wratheth every day.
    1860, E[dward] B[ouverie] Pusey, “Nahum”
    Note

    Nineteenth-century writers revived the intransitive verb when they wanted an older voice. In Walter Scott's Peveril of the Peak (1823), Ganlesse urges Nay, wrath thee not, Will, using the old reflexive pronoun, and E. B. Pusey's commentary on the Minor Prophets says that God wratheth every day.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Walter Scott wrote Peveril of the Peak. gutenberg.org
    • The first edition bears 1822. Actual publication was on 7 January 1823; under the requested convention, use 1822 or explicitly say first edition dated 1822. walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk
    • Ganlesse says Nay, wrath thee not, Will. gutenberg.org
    • Thee functions reflexively in Scott's phrase. gutenberg.org
    • E. B. Pusey's commentary on the Minor Prophets contains God wratheth every day. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of wrath apart? Answer 2 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–2, 4–6

From Middle English wraththe, “anger, fury, rage,” from Old English wrǣþþu, “ire, wrath,” probably from Proto-West Germanic *wraiþiþu, built on *wraiþ, “angry, hostile, twisted,” from Proto-Indo-European *wreyt-, “to twist”; in effect wroth + -th. The verb comes from Middle English wratthen, formed from that noun. Compare Swedish vrede, “anger, wrath.”

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 10 facts

Meaning 3

A variant of wroth, probably influenced by the noun wrath.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts