Diatribe
//ˈdaɪ.əˌtɹaɪb// noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An abusive, bitter verbal or written attack, criticism or denunciation.
"The senator was prone to diatribes which could go on for more than an hour."
- 2 thunderous verbal attack wordnet
- 3 A prolonged discourse; a long-winded speech.
Example
More examples"I don't have the time to read Tom's latest diatribe."
Etymology
First attested 1581, borrowed from French diatribe, from Latin diatriba (“learned discussion or discourse”), from Ancient Greek διατριβή (diatribḗ, “way of spending time, lecture”), from διά (diá, “through”) + τρίβω (tríbō, “I waste, wear out”)
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.