Riot

How to spell riot

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce riot

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does riot mean?

1. nounA violent disturbance of public order by a crowd of people.
2. verbTo take part in a violent public disturbance.
3. nounInformally, a person or thing that is extremely amusing or entertaining.

Riot in a sentence

• noun

  Police struggled to contain the riot outside the stadium.

• verb

  Crowds began to riot when the announcement was delayed.

• noun

  The comedian's new show was an absolute riot from start to finish.

• noun

  The prison riot caused millions in damage to the wing.

• verb

  Workers threatened to riot over the sudden pay cuts.

• noun

  Her impression of the boss had the whole office calling her a riot.

Where does riot come from?

Language of origin: French

This word arrived in English in the early 1200s from Old French, where 'riote' meant a quarrel, a dispute, or noisy revelry. The Old French noun was tied to the verb 'rioter', meaning to brawl or to make a disturbance, and its deeper roots are debated; some trace it to a Latin word for growling or grumbling, though the connection is not certain. In its earliest English use 'riot' described wild, dissolute living and reckless extravagance, a sense still faintly visible when we say a garden is 'a riot of colour'. Over the following centuries the meaning narrowed and hardened into the modern idea of a violent public disturbance by a crowd. The cheerful, comic sense (calling something 'a riot' because it is hugely entertaining) is a much later, lighthearted extension of that idea of joyful chaos. Because the spelling preserves the two separate vowels of the French original, the trap for writers is the 'io' pairing, which is pronounced as two distinct sounds.

How the word is built

• riot (from Old French riote: dispute, quarrel); no separable affixes