Anger

How to spell anger

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce anger

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does anger mean?

1. nounA strong feeling of displeasure or hostility provoked by a wrong or annoyance.
2. verbTo make someone feel strong displeasure or hostility.

Anger in a sentence

• noun

  She struggled to hide her anger during the tense meeting.

• verb

  Careless remarks can anger even a patient colleague.

• noun

  His anger faded once the misunderstanding was explained.

• verb

  The new parking charges will anger many local residents.

Where does anger come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Anger came into English from Old Norse, where angr meant grief, sorrow, or trouble, the kind of distress that weighs a person down. That noun in turn traces back to a much older root meaning to be narrow, tight, or constricted, the same ancient idea that gives us words like anguish, anxious, and angina, all of which carry a sense of being squeezed or pained. When the word entered Middle English in the 1200s it first described affliction or vexation in general, and only later narrowed to the modern meaning of hot displeasure or rage. The shift from physical tightness to emotional fury is easy to feel, since rage really does grip and tighten the body. The spelling stays satisfyingly regular, with the soft -ger ending pronounced like 'jer' even though it is written with a plain g.

How the word is built

• anger (from Old Norse angr: grief, trouble)
• no productive affix