Outrageous

How to spell outrageous

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce outrageous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does outrageous mean?

1. adjectiveShockingly bad, excessive, or unacceptable; far beyond what is reasonable.

Outrageous in a sentence

• The hotel charged an outrageous fee for a single bottle of water.

• The manager made an outrageous claim that nobody believed.

Where does outrageous come from?

Language of origin: French

This word reaches English through the noun outrage, which English borrowed from Old French in the 1300s. The French outrage came from the Latin word ultra, meaning simply 'beyond', combined with a noun ending, so the underlying idea was something that goes beyond all reasonable limits, an excess. There is a famous spelling trap hidden here: the modern word looks as though it contains 'rage', and most people assume the link is to anger, but historically the 'rage' part is an accident of sound rather than a true root, since the word is really about going 'beyond' bounds. English added the adjective ending -ous to outrage to form outrageous, meaning shockingly excessive or wildly unacceptable. Remembering that the heart of the word is outrage, not 'rage' plus an odd ending, helps fix the spelling of the final '-eous'.

How the word is built

• outrage (from Old French outrage: excess, beyond bounds)
• -ous (adjective suffix: full of)