: a state of commotion, excitement, or violent disturbance
Synonyms
- ado
- alarums and excursions
- ballyhoo
- blather
- bluster
- bobbery
- bother
- bustle
- clatter
- clutter [chiefly dialect]
- coil
- commotion
- corroboree [Australian]
- disturbance
- do [chiefly dialect]
- foofaraw
- fun
- furor
- furore
- fuss
- helter-skelter
- hoo-ha
- hoo-hah
- hoopla
- hubble-bubble
- hubbub
- hullabaloo
- hurly
- hurly-burly
- hurricane
- hurry
- hurry-scurry
- hurry-skurry
- kerfuffle [chiefly British]
- moil
- pandemonium
- pother
- row
- ruckus
- ruction
- rumpus
- shindy
- splore [Scottish]
- squall
- stew
- stir
- storm
- to-do
- tumult
- turmoil
- welter
- whirl
- williwaw
- zoo
Examples of uproar in a Sentence
There was a lot of public uproar over the proposed jail.
There have been uproars in the past over similar proposals.
The proposal caused an uproar.
The town was in an uproar over the proposal to build a jail.
Recent Examples on the Web
Taco Bell was behind this 1996 ruse, which created a national uproar.
—
Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 2024
Few public figures faced the kind of uproar that Paul McCartney did in 1969, when a rumor circulated that the Beatle had died years earlier and had been replaced by a doppelgänger.
—Tiffany Hsu, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2024
There was little opposition heard to Wells Fargo’s plan, despite uproar over a plan to put similar signage on the Truist building, formerly known as Hearst Tower, in 2020.
—Mary Ramsey, Charlotte Observer, 20 Feb. 2024
Meanwhile, in the U.K. there’s political uproar over Chinese cyberattacks against British lawmakers and voters, whose personal details have apparently all been accessed.
—David Meyer, Fortune, 25 Mar. 2024
In the uproar that followed, the constitutional council ruled the delay unlawful, and Mr. Sall performed a U-turn.
—Ruth MacLean, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2024
In an effort to evince a more neutral position that had greater sympathy for the Palestinians, amid domestic pro-Palestinian political uproar, U.S. officials for weeks sought to put forward a resolution that prioritized a cease-fire.
—Laura King, Los Angeles Times, 22 Mar. 2024
At the center of all this is a woman recovering from major surgery, which will not have been eased by this high-profile uproar.
—Alexander Smith, NBC News, 12 Mar. 2024
But the wider internet audience can always be relied upon to overlook a creator’s self-awareness in posting the joke, and Barfly’s bathroom videos are indeed engineered to create uproar.
—Jonathan Dale / The Takeout, Quartz, 17 Mar. 2024
Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 2024
Few public figures faced the kind of uproar that Paul McCartney did in 1969, when a rumor circulated that the Beatle had died years earlier and had been replaced by a doppelgänger.
—Tiffany Hsu, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2024
There was little opposition heard to Wells Fargo’s plan, despite uproar over a plan to put similar signage on the Truist building, formerly known as Hearst Tower, in 2020.
—Mary Ramsey, Charlotte Observer, 20 Feb. 2024
Meanwhile, in the U.K. there’s political uproar over Chinese cyberattacks against British lawmakers and voters, whose personal details have apparently all been accessed.
—David Meyer, Fortune, 25 Mar. 2024
In the uproar that followed, the constitutional council ruled the delay unlawful, and Mr. Sall performed a U-turn.
—Ruth MacLean, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2024
In an effort to evince a more neutral position that had greater sympathy for the Palestinians, amid domestic pro-Palestinian political uproar, U.S. officials for weeks sought to put forward a resolution that prioritized a cease-fire.
—Laura King, Los Angeles Times, 22 Mar. 2024
At the center of all this is a woman recovering from major surgery, which will not have been eased by this high-profile uproar.
—Alexander Smith, NBC News, 12 Mar. 2024
But the wider internet audience can always be relied upon to overlook a creator’s self-awareness in posting the joke, and Barfly’s bathroom videos are indeed engineered to create uproar.
—Jonathan Dale / The Takeout, Quartz, 17 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'uproar.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to uproar
Dictionary Entries Near uproar
Cite this Entry
“Uproar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/uproar. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
uproar
noun
up·roar
ˈəp-ˌrō(ə)r 
-ˌrȯ(ə)r
: a state of commotion, excitement, or violent disturbance
Etymology
from Dutch oproer "revolt, uprising," from op "up" and roer "motion"; the English spelling and meaning influenced by the similarity of the English roar to Dutch roer
Word Origin
The -roar part of the word uproar has no connection with the sounds made by some animals and crowds. The first use of uproar was as the translation of the Dutch word oproer, meaning "uprising, rebellion, revolt." Thus, the first meaning of uproar was the same as the Dutch meaning of oproer. Nowadays, this sense of uproar is no longer used. Because people thought that the roar of uproar referred to loud cries and sounds, they began to use the word to mean "a noisy disturbance or commotion." This is the sense of uproar that has survived.
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