Slang dictionary
omega rage
[ oh-meg-uh reyj ]
What does omega rage mean?
No, we’re not talking about the fury you feel while getting your behind whipped in Fortnite. Omega rage is a term used by masculinist internet users (like incels) to describe the point at which their anger over sexual rejection boils over into violent revenge against the women and men who’ve wronged them.
Where does omega rage come from?
Animals with social hierarchies, like primates and wolves, are said to be dominated by an alpha, who rules over the subservient betas and lowly omegas, who are at the bottom of the ladder. This use of omega, from the last letter of the Greek alphabet, dates back to at least the 1940s.
Omega spread to human packs in the 2000–10s especially with the rise of the so-called manosphere online. Many men in these spaces feel women are oppressing men. One group, incels or involuntary celibates, even blame women for their lack of sex and relationships. And how do they feel about it? They feel rage, apparently, as the term omega rage implies.
Omega rage refers to a vicious resentment that sexually and romantically unsuccessful men feel to enact revenge on women and society with rape or mass murder. Parallel terms are beta uprising and incel apocalypse, which imagine beta men leading a violent revolution against alphas, feminists, and normies.
Omega rage has been connected to real-life attacks and murders, including the 2014 Isla Vista mass shooting, 2015 Germanwings plane crash, and the 2018 Toronto van attack, whose perpetrators were reported to struggle with women or identify with groups like incels.
Examples of omega rage
Who uses omega rage?
p-Omega rage sees use in male interest spaces of the internet, such as Reddit and 4chan, to characterize male feelings of sexual and social frustration, often with a humorous, though dark, tone. Their critics, though, often fire the term right back at them.
@voxday @matunos
omega rage (or whatever you label it) – is an argument for restraining men, not women (who do just fine)— Vanir (@Vanir85) March 27, 2015
Omega rage also sounds like it could be an action film starring Steven Seagal, with omega evoking its original sense of “ultimate.” And so we see omega rage in social media and gaming usernames. Occasionally, omega rage is used for extreme rage quit, or when a player gets so fed up with a video game they, say, smash their controller.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of omega rage like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of omega rage that will help our users expand their word mastery.