Harangue

//həˈɹæŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An impassioned, disputatious public speech.
  2. 2
    a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion wordnet
  3. 3
    A tirade, harsh scolding or rant, whether spoken or written.

    "She gave her son a harangue about the dangers of playing in the street."

Verb
  1. 1
    To give a forceful and lengthy lecture or criticism to someone. ambitransitive

    "The angry motorist leapt from his car to harangue the other driver."

  2. 2
    deliver a harangue to; address forcefully wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
rantrantaddressadmonishadmonishadmonition

Example

More examples

"America's NATO allies have been shaken by Trump's harangue against them in Brussels over their underspending on defense, and his unrestrained effort to curry favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Helsinki."

Etymology

From Middle English arang and French harangue, from Old Italian aringa (modern Italian arringa) from aringare (“speak in public”) (modern Italian arringare), from aringo (“public assembly”), from Gothic *𐌷𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍃 (*hriggs) or a compound containing it, akin to Old High German hring (“ring”) (whence German Ring).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.