# Feeling irate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 7, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864 "2010-07-07T14:49:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/21 "2010-07-08T04:31:47Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > I am apparently only the second person to say vote yes. I have never known about any difference between the two words. Context can slightly make one of them more appropriate than the other, but as is normal in English, both will pretty much always work when substituting one in for the other. Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Dopey, Doc, and Irate? Doesn’t work for me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/22 "2010-07-08T05:50:02Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > I guess you can’t substitute in ‘pissed’ for ‘grumpy’ 'cus that seems like it would be a lot easier for HS students with reading difficulty to understand. “pissy” is closer to “grumpy” in my idiolect (though pissy has more of an edge to it). “Really really pissed _right now_” is closer to “irate” ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/23 "2010-07-08T11:44:17Z")
grumpy ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/24 "2010-07-08T12:15:24Z")
If you say Grumpy enough times it sounds like some sort of mild medical condition. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/25 "2010-07-08T20:37:40Z")
4 more yes… Clearly they want the spanking I offered. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/26 "2010-07-08T23:01:25Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > grumpy OK, I don’t know what happened to what I typed but: grumpy and irate are not close enough that I would call them synonyms. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/27 "2010-07-09T11:17:38Z")
I voted yes, without reading the thread, because I might say I was a bit grumpy about something that I was actually really angry about, to deliberately down-play it. But in the context of a high school reading text, no, they are not synonyms. ---
**Author:** ![SevenOfTeemingMillions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@SevenOfTeemingMillions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SevenOfTeemingMillions)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/28 "2010-07-09T13:48:30Z")
I voted No. An irate person is much more fun to watch than a grumpy person. 😃 (I imagine an irate person as someone waving his/her arms whilst screaming-yodelling.) ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/29 "2010-07-09T14:03:45Z")
Not even close. If I’m irate, I’m enraged. Throwing things, yelling, I’m \*shaking \*I’m so mad. Grumpy’s not even in the same ballpark. Hell, it’s watching an entirely different sport. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/30 "2010-07-09T23:31:43Z")
No, unless I’m going for understatement. ETA: Did you know a vote counts as a post? I had to wait the 60 seconds here. ---
**Author:** ![wwworldclique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bcef8e/32.png) [@wwworldclique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wwworldclique)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/31 "2010-07-10T04:39:46Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > I am apparently only the second person to say vote yes. I have never known about any difference between the two words. Context can slightly make one of them more appropriate than the other, but as is normal in English, both will pretty much always work when substituting one in for the other. Absolutely not! There are huge shades of meaning between “grumpy” and “irate.” They’re not even close to being similar. Grumpy refers to an overall mood of irritability. “Irate” means something quite different altogether, a heightened state of rage, usually as an immediate reaction to something. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/32 "2010-07-10T09:22:27Z")
Grumpy is inward. Irate is outward. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/33 "2010-07-11T03:26:10Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Grumpy is inward. Irate is outward. Very true. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864/34 "2010-07-11T08:01:36Z")
Forget semantics. Grumpy was a dwarf, and Irate was not. They are not interchangeable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-irate/545864.md?page=1)