Outraged

How to spell outraged

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce outraged

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does outraged mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling or showing intense anger and indignation at something perceived as wrong or offensive.
2. verbPast tense of outrage: to have shocked or deeply offended someone's sense of decency or justice.

Outraged in a sentence

• adjective

  Customers were outraged by the sudden increase in service fees.

• verb

  The verdict outraged the victim's family and many in the community.

• adjective

  She sent an outraged email to the airline after losing her luggage.

• verb

  His careless remarks outraged the staff who had worked all weekend.

Where does outraged come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back through Old French to the noun 'outrage', meaning an excess or an act of violence, which was formed from 'outre', meaning 'beyond', plus the noun-forming ending '-age'. The 'outre' part descends from the Latin 'ultra', meaning 'beyond' or 'past the proper limit', the same root that gives us 'ultra' and 'ultimate'. English borrowed 'outrage' in the 1300s for a grossly offensive or violent act, and the verb 'to outrage' (to shock or offend deeply) followed, giving the past form and adjective 'outraged'. A common mistake is to assume the word is built from 'out' plus 'rage', as if it meant raging outwardly; that connection is a coincidence of sound and spelling, not a real origin. Knowing the true root, 'ultra' meaning 'beyond', helps explain why the sense is one of going beyond acceptable limits, and it is why the word keeps its '-age' spelling rather than ending in '-rage' as a separate idea.

How the word is built

• outr- (from Latin ultra: beyond, excess)
• -age (noun suffix)
• -d (past tense / adjective marker)