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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rave.

An enthusiastic review (such as of a play).

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɹeɪv/
  1. An enthusiastic review (such as of a play).

    countable · informal
    It was the critic's rave that made me want to see the show.
  2. A large-scale dance party with strobe lights and fast-paced electronic dance music, often illegally organized open-air or in underground venues.

    countable · uncountable
    She has attended a rave every weekend this month.
  3. The genres of electronic dance music made to be played in rave parties.

    uncountable
    I danced to rave music all night.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English raven (“to rave; talk like a madman”), from Old French raver, variant of resver, of uncertain origin. Compare rave below, and rove.

verb/ɹeɪv/
  1. To be mentally unclear; to be delirious; to talk or act irrationally; to be wild, furious, or raging.

    intransitive
  2. To speak or write wildly or incoherently.

    intransitive
  3. To talk or otherwise express oneself with excessive enthusiasm, passion or excitement.

    intransitive
    He raved about her beauty.
  4. To speak (a message) with intense enthusiasm, passion or excitement.

    transitive
    She raved that she must seek revenge against the wrongdoers.
  5. To rush wildly or furiously.

    obsolete
  6. To attend a rave (dance party).

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English raven (“to rave; talk like a madman”), from Old French raver, variant of resver, of uncertain origin. Compare rave below, and rove.

verb/ɹeɪv/
  1. To wander or roam.

    Newfoundland · Scotland · intransitive
  2. To stray or err.

    Newfoundland · Scotland · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From northern Middle English raven, from Old Norse ráfa (“to wander, roam”), of uncertain and obscure origin. Perhaps from a dissimilation of Proto-Germanic *wab(b)ōną (“to sway, waver, swing, shake, wobble, totter, reel, careen”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to move, swarm, waft”). Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk rava (“to wander, be delirious”). Doublet of rove. Compare also Middle Dutch reven (“to utter nonsense, rave, be drowsy”) (whence modern Dutch revelen (“to rave, talk nonsense”), Middle Low German rēven (“to be crazy, think and talk nonsensically”), Middle High German reben (“to move about, dream, be confused”) (compare Alemannic German räbeln (“to make loud noise”)).

noun/ɹeɪv/
  1. One of the upper side pieces of the frame of a wagon body or a sleigh.

Where this word comes from

English dialect raves, or rathes (“a frame laid on a wagon, for carrying hay, etc.”).

verb/ɹeɪv/
  1. simple past of rive

    form-of · obsolete · past
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.