In this English lesson you’ll learn 44 ways to say that you’re mad…without using the word “mad”.
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He was incensed. Livid. He was on the warpath. There are so many really interesting and colorful ways to say ‘mad’. Let’s level up your vocabulary today by learning 44 words and phrases to use instead of ‘mad’. This list is packed with idioms, we’ll cover British English expressions, American English expressions, and I have no doubt that after this video you’ll be able to express yourself with more sophistication. Be sure to download my Sounds of American English cheat sheet, it’s free, it’s an illustrated reference guide for you for all the American English sounds, including the phonetic symbols you need to know. Link here and in the video description.
Probably the most common and obvious word you can use instead of ‘mad’ is ‘angry’. Yesterday, my two sons kept acting up, misbehaving, and I got really angry.
‘Angry’ is fun because you can use it in ways that don’t describe a person. You could describe the water during a storm as being angry, or a cut, bite or wound on your skin as being angry: red, inflamed.
There’s ‘upset’, also common and straightforward. My husband was upset that I didn’t tell him I’d be home late. He was mad.
Upset can also mean sad. She was really upset when she didn’t pass the choir audition.
Now, here’s a level up vocabulary word. Apoplectic. How do you say that? æp ə, æp ə ˈplɛk tɪk. It helps to break it down syllable by syllable and think about stress. ˌæp ə, ˌæp ə, ˈplɛk tɪk, ˈplɛk tɪk. ˌæp əˈplɛk tɪk. Really, really mad. Extremely angry.
This comes from the noun ˈæp əˌplɛk si, which means a stroke, a blockage of a blood vessel leading to the brain, which can result in paralysis, speech difficulties, and even death. ˌæp əˈplɛk tɪk. The teacher was ˌæp əˈplɛk tɪk when she found out there had been cheating on the test.
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Sometimes when people are mad, they lose their temper. Have you heard this phrase before? Lose control in anger. Some people get mad and you just see that they’re really mad, you can tell but they’re not fully expressing it. And then sometimes, boom! People express it and they lose their temper. They yell, they throw stuff.
Now we’re going to do a bunch of idioms that begin with B. First, bent out of shape. It’s going to be pretty common here to drop the T in ‘bent’ because it comes after an N, before a vowel. The T in ‘out’ is a Flap T, and the V sound in ‘of’ is probably dropped. So BENTtt Outtt Of Shape, there’s a good chance you’ll hear that ‘ben-ou-dah-shape’ Bent out of shape means, literally, bent in a shape other than the one that’s normal or desired. I couldn’t fit the pieces together because one got bent out of shape. But here, as an idiom, it means angry, mad.
This is what we do when we get mad and yell at someone.
For example, I got in a fender bender. That means a really minor car accident, and the woman totally bit my head off. She was so bent out of shape.
Now, with ‘blow’, we have several nouns we can use to make phrases that mean really mad. Blow a fuse. A fuse is something that melts and breaks an electrical circuit if the current goes above a safe level. For example, if you’re running your microwave, your blender and your hairdryer all on the same outlet, first, you’re an amazing multi-tasker, and second of, you’re probably going to blow a fuse, and have to reset your breaker. A person blows their fuse when they lose their temper.
We also have ‘blow a gasket’. This is just like blow a fuse. A gasket helps seal a joint to make it watertight. My son blew a gasket when he found out our trip to Disney was canceled due to Covid.
You could also say, he blew his top off. Got so mad, lost his temper.
Another great word is ‘boiling’. We all know what a pot of water looks like, and you can imagine that’s how you feel inside when you’re mad. When my kid pushed another kid at the playground, I was boiling. By the way, I feel like I’m making my kids sound terrible here, they’re not, but this just happens to be a video on ways to say I’m mad. Most of the time, they make me very, very happy. A related one here is ‘makes my blood boil’. This is something that makes you really mad. Pretty much everything in politics makes my blood boil.
This next one has a couple of different meanings. It can mean mad, angry: my boss was beside himself when John didn’t show up for work today. But it can also mean agitated, really worried; She was beside herself when she couldn’t get a hold of her son. But it can also mean really happy.
When he found out he got the scholarship, he was just beside himself.
Cross. Now this one is British. We don’t really use this in American English. I was really cross with her for not waiting for me after school.
This one is more mild and not all that common, but you’ll also see the word ‘displeased’. My mom was displeased with my grades last semester.
Now, if someone is more than displeased, if they’re really really mad, they’re enraged. Full of rage. He was enraged when he found out he was passed over for the promotion. That means he didn’t get it!
Also, outraged. So angry. The faculty were outraged at the changes to their health insurance.
Another idiom, fit to be tied. We’re not actually going to tie anyone up here, but you can imagine someone is so angry that you’re worried they might do something crazy or hurt someone. And you might want to tie that person up. The school administration was fit to be tied over the senior prank.
Two other ways to describe being so mad you lose your temper is flying off the handle and flipping your lid. The teacher flipped her lid when she found out no one did their homework. She chewed us out. To chew someone out. This describes what you might do when you are mad. It means to reprimand someone. You lazy kids need to start doing your homework if you care about your future!
Wow, she said that? Yeah, she totally flew off the handle.
Foaming at the mouth means literally, foamy saliva coming out of your mouth, but it also means, really, really mad and has nothing to do with saliva. He was foaming at the mouth when he found out about her affair. He was fuming. I love this one too. Fuming. So mad.
We already went over enraged, full of rage. We also have furious, full of fury, which is another way to say rage and a related word, ‘infuriating’. It is infuriating when you don’t follow the rules. It just makes me furious.
We had several phrases with ‘blow’, now we have several with ‘go’ – again these mean to lose your temper. To be so mad.
Go ballistic. Ballistics is the study of projectiles like bullets or bombs. He went ballistic when he thought they were overcharging him.
Go off the deep end. He went off the deep end when they accused him of cheating. This can also mean an event in mental health when you lose control, you’re acting really strange, not yourself.
Ok now this one involves a cuss word. Go apeshit. She went apeshit when she found out I quit my job. This one can also mean really, really excited, so happy. He went apeshit when he found out they were having a boy.
Go off on someone. This is when you yell at someone because you’re really mad at them. Oh I’m so mad at her. I’m going to go off on her if I ever see her again.
Go through the roof. A similar mental image to blow your top off. They’re going to go through the roof when they find out you skipped school.
There’s also hit the roof. Same idea. They hit the roof when they found out the rent was going up by more than $300.
You might also hear ‘hot under the collar’. Some shirts have a collar. If you’re hot under your collar, ooh, you might blow your top!
Our next three, great vocabulary words: incensed, irate, irked. Incensed and irate are both really mad. Irked is only sort or mad, more like annoyed. I’m a little irked that she didn’t call me back. That’s different from: “I’m incensed. She continues to disrespect me.” She was irate that her Apple watch was stolen at the gym.
This next one, also a great vocabulary word, livid. The word has two meanings; one is bluish in color. But the second is furiously angry. I like to think of someone so mad that their face turns blue. They said I have to redo this whole project; I am livid that they didn’t let me know sooner.
Three phrases with lose: lose it, lose your cool, and, less common, lose your rag.
When he stood up my friend on their third date, I lost my cool, I lost it. To stand someone up is to not show up. Let’s say you and I are supposed to meet for coffee tomorrow. I go, I get coffee, I wait at the coffee shop for 30 minutes, you never show up. You stood me up.
Lose your rag. We hired movers, and they broke my grandmother’s serving bowl. I lost my rag.
Another phrase you can use for someone who is really mad is to say they are ‘on the warpath’. Try to avoid Kristin today. She just got fired and she’s on a warpath.
Now, this is one I use a lot: I’m pissed. That really pisses me off. Now pissed, in British English, can mean drunk. In American English, it means mad. I get really pissed when someone gives me advice I didn’t ask for. It pisses me off when people try to tell me what to do.
An idiom: seeing red. Can’t you just picture it? You’re so mad, you’re seeing red. “Was she mad?” “Oh, totally. She was seeing red.”
Seething, an excellent vocabulary word. You know how we talked about someone losing their temper, expressing their anger? This is the opposite. You’re so mad, but you don’t express it, but everyone can tell. You’re just seething.
This next one. Less intense, but you’re still mad. You’re sore. She was kind of sore at us because we went out for drinks after work and didn’t invite her.
Also, another definition, if you do a really hard workout, afterwards, your muscles might be sore.
Up in arms. This can mean protesting, but it can also just mean upset about something; upset and letting people know. The students were up in arms about the new testing rules.
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