outrage

This is not just being annoyed. It is a strong mix of anger, shock, and the feeling that something is deeply wrong or unfair. You might feel it when you hear that someone was treated cruelly, when a leader abuses power, or when a company causes harm and tries to hide it. It often appears in public life, where many people react strongly to the same event.

The word can also name the act itself. Someone may call a cruel comment, an unfair decision, or a shocking crime "an outrage." In news and everyday speech, it often points to something that crosses a moral or social line.

Outrage is a very strong feeling of anger and shock, usually caused by something seen as unfair, cruel, offensive, or morally wrong. It is stronger than annoyance or ordinary anger because it carries the sense that a serious line has been crossed. If news spreads that officials covered up abuse or that a business poisoned a river, people may react with outrage because the event feels both harmful and unacceptable.

This feeling can be personal or shared by a whole group. A person may feel outrage after seeing someone humiliated or cheated. A community may show outrage after a scandal, a violent act, or an unjust law. Because the feeling is so intense, it often leads people to speak out, protest, demand punishment, or push for change.

The word is also used for the act itself. A cruel joke, a shocking crime, or a deeply unfair decision can be called an outrage. In that use, the focus is not on the emotion but on the thing that caused it. For example, saying that "the attack was an outrage" means the act was so bad that it strongly offended people's sense of right and wrong.

Older uses of the word were often linked more directly to violence or serious injury. That meaning still helps explain the modern sense: something has gone too far. Whether it describes a person's reaction, a wave of public anger, or an act that shocks people, the word points to a powerful response to something deeply wrong.