Meaning & use
wrath
Last updated
UK/rɒθ/
US/rɑːθ/
Meaning
noununcountableliterary
Fierce, powerful anger, especially from someone with the power to punish.
Grammar: Usually uncountable and often with a possessive: the wrath of the king.
Patterns
- the wrath of someone
- incur someone's wrath
The villagers feared the wrath of the king.
He risked his boss's wrath by leaving early.
The storm seemed to unleash the wrath of the gods.
Common combinations
- incur someone's wrath
- She incurred her mother's wrath by lying.
- face the wrath of
- Anyone who breaks the rule faces the wrath of the coach.
- divine wrath
- Ancient stories describe divine wrath.
- escape someone's wrath
- No one escaped the manager's wrath.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fury
- Fury describes violent, uncontrolled anger and is less tied to punishment.
- rage
- Rage is a sudden burst of anger, while wrath suggests anger with intent to punish.
- anger
- Anger is the general, everyday word and can be mild.
Opposites
Word family
- wrathful adjective
- full of wrath
Commonly confused: wrath or wreath?
wrath vs wreath
A wreath is a ring of flowers or leaves and sounds different.
Practice
The pharaoh's ______ fell on anyone who disobeyed him.
Choose one answer.
Wrath means intense punishing anger. The other words look or sound similar but make no sense here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wrath”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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