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PlainSpell

rave

/ɹeɪv/noun, verb

rave is a noun meaning “An enthusiastic review (such as of a play)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-A-V-E and has one syllable, and it appears 3.3 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of rave is raves.

What does rave mean?

noun

  1. 1

    informalAn enthusiastic review (such as of a play).

    It was the critic's rave that made me want to see the show.

  2. 2

    A large-scale dance party with strobe lights and fast-paced electronic dance music, often illegally organized open-air or in underground venues.

    She has attended a rave every weekend this month.

  3. 3

    The genres of electronic dance music made to be played in rave parties.

    I danced to rave music all night.

  4. 4

    One of the upper side pieces of the frame of a wagon body or a sleigh.

verb

  1. 1

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

  2. 2

    To speak or write wildly or incoherently.

  3. 3

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

    He raved about her beauty.

  4. 4

    To speak (a message) with intense enthusiasm, passion or excitement.

    She raved that she must seek revenge against the wrongdoers.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo rush wildly or furiously.

  6. 6

    To attend a rave (dance party).

  7. 7

    ScotlandTo wander or roam.

  8. 8

    ScotlandTo stray or err.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce rave?

  • /ɹeɪv/

Rave has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-rave.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of rave

  • raves plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • raving participle, present
  • raved participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is rave?

Rave appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Rave in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanSchwärmerei, schwärmerische Kritik, schwärmerische Rezension (enthusiastic review), Rave (dance party), toben, rasen (to speak or write incoherently)
Frenchrave (dance party)
Portugueserave (dance party), devanear, delirar, desvairar, tresvairar, tresloucar (to speak or write incoherently)
Spanishrave (dance party), desvariar, delirar, disparatar, devanear, desbarrar (to speak or write incoherently)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does rave come 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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).