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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.
Examples of berate in a Sentence
Karl Vick, Time, 23 Oct. 2025
But just yelling and berating people, done that for eight years.
—Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 21 Oct. 2025
Michael Schill, then president of Northwestern, was berated by congressional Republicans for brokering a compromise with pro-Palestinian protesters last year, disbanding their tent cities while preserving free speech.
—James Druckman, Mercury News, 17 Oct. 2025
The passenger rolled down her window to berate protesters.
—Alicia Victoria Lozano, NBC news, 13 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for berate
Cite this Entry
“Berate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/berate. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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berate
verb
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