English Reference
noun

anger

n.
US /ˈæŋɡɝ/ UK /ˈæŋɡɐ/ anger UK spelling angering

  1. 01 B1 Intermediate

    a strong, hot feeling you have when you think something is unfair or when someone treats you badly.

    a strong emotion of displeasure or hostility triggered by perceived provocation or injustice.

    Simple

    He struggled to hide his anger when he found out they had lied to him.

    In context

    The public's anger over the new tax laws manifested in a series of peaceful but firm protests across the capital.

    Pitfall
    He had a lot of anger to his boss. He felt a lot of anger toward his boss.

    Use 'toward' or 'at' to show who the anger is directed at.

The cyclists' union is "filled with anger" after the death of British rider Finlay Tarling during the Volta a Portugal race.

Sky News· 16 Aug 2026

Their move back was scheduled for last summer, but was pushed earlier to February 2025 because of their anger over Trump's re-election.

BBC News· 14 Aug 2026

From Middle English anger (“grief, pain, trouble, affliction, vexation, sorrow, wrath”), from Old Norse angr, ǫngr (“affliction, sorrow”) (compare Old Norse ang, ǫng (“troubled”)), from Proto-Germanic angazaz (“grief, sorrow”), from Proto-Indo-European h₂enǵʰ- (“narrow, tied together”). Cognate with Danish anger (“regret, remorse”), Norwegian Bokmål anger (“regret, remorse”), Swedish ånger (“regret”), Icelandic angur (“trouble”), Old English ange, enge (“narrow, close, straitened, constrained, confined, vexed, troubled, sorrowful, anxious, oppressive, severe, painful, cruel”), German Angst (“anxiety, anguish, fear”), Latin angō (“squeeze, choke, vex”), angor (“strangulation; anguish, torment”) (whence the English doublet angor), Albanian ang (“fear, anxiety, pain, nightmare”), Avestan 𐬄𐬰𐬀𐬵 (ązah, “strangulation; distress”), Ancient Greek ἄγχω (ánkhō, “I squeeze, strangle”), Sanskrit अंहस् (aṃhas), अंहु (aṃhu, “anxiety, distress, affliction”, literally “narrowness”). Also compare with English anguish, anxious, quinsy, and perhaps to awe and ugly. The word seems to have originally meant “to choke, squeeze”. The verb is from Middle English angren, angeren, from Old Norse angra. Compare with Icelandic angra, Norwegian Nynorsk angra, Norwegian Bokmål angre, Swedish ångra, Danish angre.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Origin non angra
Level B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency Common
Updated