What does angry mean?
Angry is one of the most fundamental words in English for describing emotion: it means feeling or showing strong displeasure, irritation, or hostility, typically in reaction to something perceived as unfair, hurtful, or obstructive. It functions chiefly as an adjective and takes complements such as "at", "with", or "about" to indicate the target of feeling — one can be angry with a person, angry about a decision, or simply angry without any stated cause. Intensity ranges from mild vexation to outright fury, which is why it pairs naturally with both understated and emphatic modifiers. Beyond human emotion, it has a vivid extended sense describing inflamed tissue: a wound may look "red and angry." The word traces back through Middle English to Old Norse angr, meaning distress or grief, making it part of a family of Germanic terms linking pain and passion. Its derivatives — anger (noun), angrily (adverb), and anger (verb) — make it central to how English talks about conflict and emotion.
Feeling or showing strong displeasure, annoyance, or hostility.
"The customers were angry about the price increase."
(Of a wound or inflammation) red, raw, and painful-looking.
"The bite left an angry red mark on his arm."
The Old Norse word behind "angry," angra, originally meant "to grieve" — so being angry once meant being in pain.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of angry
Angry derives ultimately from Old Norse angr, meaning "grief, sorrow, or affliction", related to the verb angra, "to vex or distress". It entered English via Middle English during the period of heavy Scandinavian influence on northern dialects, first appearing in the form angri. The noun anger developed alongside it from the same root. Cognate ideas of anguish and anxiety trace back to related Germanic roots conveying distress, showing a long historical association between anger and suffering.
Word family
Usage notes
"Angry at", "angry with", and "angry about" are all standard: use "with/at" for people and "about/over" for situations. The comparative "angrier" and superlative "angriest" are preferred over analytic forms. In informal American speech, "mad" is the everyday equivalent, though it traditionally meant insane in British English.
Don't confuse with
"Hangry" is a blend of hungry and angry describing irritability caused by hunger, whereas angry refers to anger from any cause.