103 Synonyms for ANGER or ANGRY

Sometimes certain words keep popping up in your manuscript and you wish there were other forms of the word you could substitute. Or maybe you’re looking for a more specific term for the basic word you have in mind. Well, if the word you’re using is ANGER or ANGRY, here are 103 useful alternatives:

1.         Acrid: extremely harsh (or an unpleasant taste or smell)

2.         Acrimonious: harshly unpleasant

3.         Aggravated: angrily agitated

4.         Angered: made angry

5.         Annoyed: angry about being disturbed

6.         Antagonistic: angrily opposed

7.         Antipathetic: expressing aggression or aversion

8.         Apoplectic: violently angry, from the word apoplexy, meaning having a stroke

9.         Ballistic: explosively angry, from the word meaning projectile flight

10.       Bellicose: aggressively angry, from the synonym for warlike

11.       Belligerent: see bellicose

12.       Bent out of shape: as in stooped over while screaming

13.       Beside oneself: seeming out of character

14.       Bitter: resentful

15.       Blue in the face: see frustrated, from the idea of facial discoloration caused by extreme emotion

16.       Boiling: extremely angry, meaning being agitated like heated water

17.       Bristling: defensively angry, like an animal’s hair bristling as it responds to a threat

18.       Burning: extremely angry, from the body overheating due to intense feeling

19.       Caustic: cruelly angry, or sarcastic

20.       Chagrin: distress caused by humiliation or failure

21.       Cheesed off: see frustrated (also “bored” or “disgusted”)

22.       Choleric: easily angered

23.       Churlish: disrespectfully angry

24.       Cold: emotionally remote anger

25.       Contrary: uncooperatively angry

26.       Cool: angry but emotions are held in check

27.       Cross

28.       Disgruntlement: ill-humored or discontented

29.       Discontent

30.       Displeasure

31.       Embittered: made upset

32.       Enraged: violently angry

33.       Exasperated: see frustrated

34.       Fired up: see hot

35.       Fit to be tied: extremely angry, suggesting that the angry person should be restrained

36.       Flare up: so angry you might turn into fire

37.       Fly off the handle: refers to loose ax head flying off the handle when swung

38.       Foaming: so angry as to suggest insanity caused by hydrophobia (rabies), as in foaming at the mouth is symptomatic of the disease

39.       Frustrated: upset due to obstacles or challenges

40.       Fuming: extremely angry, from the association of a volcano or other heated natural phenomenon

41.       Fury: destructive rage; refers to mythic Furies (avenging Greek deities who torment criminals and inflict plagues)

42.       Furious: intensely angry

43.       Galled: fret or wear by friction; become sore from rubbing

44.       Go berserk: ancient Scandinavian warrior frenzied in battle and held to be invulnerable

45.       Going crook: losing one’s temper

46.       Hopping: jumping up and down to express anger

47.       Hopping mad: see hopping

48.       Horn-mad: extremely angry

49.       Hostile: actively intimidating, unfriendly, or resistant

50.       Hot: physical discomfort caused by anger

51.       Hot under the collar: see hot

52.       Icy: see cold

53.       Impassioned

54.       In a lather: referring to ‘lathering at the mouth’ from Rabies

55.       In high dudgeon: state of indignation

56.       Incensed: see indignant

57.       Indignant: angry because of a real or perceived slight or unjust attack

58.       Inflamed: see hot

59.       Infuriated: see furious

60.       Incense: set on fire

61.       Irascibility: easily provoked anger

62.       Irate: see furious

63.       Ireful: see irate

64.       Irk: irritate

65.       Livid: intensely angry to the point of being unable to control oneself (livid, however, can also mean “bruised,” “pale,” or “colorful,” with the second sense associated with pain, shock, or fear)

66.       Mad: insane or crazy; also used to mean angry as in unable to think clearly due to madness

67.       Malcontent: displeased

68.       Outraged: angry about an offense

69.       Passionate: easily angered

70.       Peeve: resentful

71.       Perturbed: upset (or confused)

72.       Pissed off: aggravated

73.       Piqued: aroused through provocation

74.       Provoke: arouse to feeling or action

75.       Rabid: see foaming

76.       Raging: see furious

77.       Rancorous: malevolently angry

78.       Rankled: resentful

79.       Ranting: irrationally angry

80.       Raving: see ranting

81.       Riled: upset; quickened heartbeat

82.       Roiled: see riled

83.       Ruffled feathers: as in a bird’s raised feathers to intimidate

84.       Seeing red: so angry that one’s vision is blurred by excess blood flow in the eyes

85.       Seething: repressing violent anger

86.       Shirty: British for irritated

87.       Smoldering: see seething

88.       Sore: see indignant

89.       Soreheaded: see indignant

90.       Steamed: see hot

91.       Steaming: see hot

92.       Storming: anger suggestive of stormy weather

93.       Stormy: see storming

94.       Teed off: annoyed

95.       Tetchiness: (tetchy) another form of touchy or irritable

96.       Testiness: easily annoyed

97.       Ticked: angry; also “ticked off”

98.       Vexation: troubling

99.       Vitriolic: see caustic

100.     Worked up: upset

101.     Wrathful: see furious

102.     Wroth: see furious

103.     Wrought up: see “worked up”

Harpies, Book Two, Seraphym Wars Series (out soon)


Transported to a planet he'd never heard of was the least of fifteen-year-old Griffen's problems. Learning to control his suddenly increasing strength and new ability to pull lightning from the sky takes some getting used to.  Angry preteen Seth joins the quest; meanwhile discovering his combusting ability as a fire-starter. Driven to find the last Vigorio, a young girl able to experience others' emotions, they journey together toward their destinies as warriors against Narciss, Ruler of Tartarus and his Legio of demon-dragons. But Belial, a power-hungry demon determined to win Narciss’s approval makes their trip miserable while Narciss’s Harpy henchmen take matters into their own hands.