Month: May 2018

On the Order of Intensity of Meaning – Angry

In the light of the current admonition  against ‘adverbs of degree’, I was thinking about words for angry, and how they relate qualitatively to each other.

I could have started with any number of adjectives, but this happened to occur to me on the subject of ire, so I’ll start with that. If there is a smattering of a response in the comments which does not relate to buying aids to sustained performance in an intimate setting then there may be other similar posts to follow.

Let’s try to put these words in order, starting from the least severe and working up.

Let me know if you think I should change the order, or if I have missed any out (probably) or included any that are too obscure (unlikely!).

Rules :

  • There are no absolutely wrong answers. I am as interested in how others perceive these words and their meanings as what the dictionary actually says.
  • I didn’t use a thesaurus or a dictionary, but you can.
  • Try to avoid straying from the core meaning of ‘annoyed’ so not words like ‘hurt’ or ‘upset’.

 

My list :

  1. Put out
  2. Miffed
  3. Peeved
  4. Disgruntled
  5. Irate
  6. Annoyed
  7. Angry
  8. Furious
  9. Incandescent
  10. Apoplectic

 

Updated list :

  1. Put out
  2. Miffed
  3. Peeved
  4. Irritated
  5. Disgruntled
  6. Annoyed
  7. Angry
  8. Irate
  9. Furious
  10. Incandescent
  11. Apoplectic

 

Now I am wondering about “irked”