berate

verb

be·​rate bi-ˈrāt 

bē-

berated; berating; berates

transitive verb

: to scold or condemn vehemently and at length

being berated by her parents when she came home late

Did you know?

Berate and Rate

People have berated things—and each other—for time immemorial, but the word berate has only been known to English users since the mid-1500s. Before that, if you wanted to angrily rebuke, say, an outlaw for impersonating a fortune teller in order to steal the golden hubcaps off your royal carriage, you would rate them. Berate simply added the prefix be- to the existing verb rate, which is distinct from the rate that means “to value or esteem.” While the more familiar rate comes ultimately from Latin, the origins of the less common “scolding” rate are obscure.

Synonyms

• baste
• bawl out
• call down
• castigate
• chastise
• chew out
• dress down
• flay
• hammer
• jaw
• keelhaul
• lambaste
• lambast
• lecture
• rag
• rail (at or against)
• rant (at)
• rate
• ream (out)
• rebuke
• reprimand
• reproach
• scold
• score
• tongue-lash
• upbraid

Choose the Right Synonym for berate

scold, upbraid, berate, rail, revile, vituperate mean to reproach angrily and abusively.

scold implies rebuking in irritation or ill temper justly or unjustly.

angrily scolding the children

upbraid implies censuring on definite and usually justifiable grounds.

upbraided her assistants for poor research

berate suggests prolonged and often abusive scolding.

berated continually by an overbearing boss

rail (at or against) stresses an unrestrained berating.

railed loudly at their insolence

revile implies a scurrilous, abusive attack prompted by anger or hatred.

an alleged killer reviled in the press

vituperate suggests a violent reviling.

was vituperated for betraying his friends

Examples of berate in a Sentence

there's no need to berate someone for making a mistake during the first day on the job

Recent Examples on the Web

There’s enough glorious weirdness threaded throughout this peanut-butter-meets-chocolate combination of Judd Apatow-type set-ups and the kind of comedy that results in Robinson berating himself with a bar of soap in his mouth to justify a lot. —David Fear, Rolling Stone, 8 May 2025

The meeting never devolved into the outburst that the public saw in Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was berated by the U.S. president and his team for not being sufficiently deferential. —Josh Boak, Chicago Tribune, 6 May 2025

The film portrayed Green berating and humiliating his students, while also inspiring them to a high level of musicianship, culminating in an All-Stars performance at a Frank Zappa tribute festival in Germany. —Air Mail, 3 May 2025

Every obstacle gets thrown in his path, including a macho but charismatic brute (Julian McMahon) and his stable of bad-boy surfers who belittle, berate and strip him of his masculinity. —Randy Myers, Mercury News, 1 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1548, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for berate

• abate
• airfreight
• await
• baseplate
• birthdate
• birthrate
• bookplate
• borate
• breastplate
• bromate
• casemate
• castrate

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Kids Definition

berate

verb

be·​rate bi-ˈrāt 

: to scold forcefully