revenge
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Any form of personal, retaliatory action against a person, institution, or group for some alleged or perceived harm or injustice.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
reevehnjSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹiˈvɛndʒ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To take revenge for (a particular harmful action) or on behalf of (its victim); to avenge.
Take revenge for a perceived wrong
transitivereflexive
To take one's revenge (on or upon someone).
noun
Any form of personal, retaliatory action against an individual, institution, or group for some alleged or perceived harm or injustice.
A win by a previous loser.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To take revenge for (a particular harmful action) or on behalf of (its victim); to avenge.
Used this way, revenge is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use revenge
- “Seeking revenge rarely makes anyone feel better in the long run.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.