Rant vs Vent – What Is The Difference?

If you’ve ever been on social media sites, especially Discord and TikTok, you’ll see videos and posts about “rants” and “vents”. Both rants and vents deal with emotional topics, but what is the difference between them?

Both rants and vents come from a place of emotion, and they both mean to release information that has been bottling up inside you. However, a rant comes more from a place of anger, where the person ranting goes on and on about an event that made their blood boil. Whereas a vent is more a process of letting go an emotion you’ve been holding in for a while.

The rest of this article will cover what a rant is, and what a vent is.

What A Rant Is

A rant stems from a place of anger. If you’re ever confused between rant and vent, think of rant like rage. It sounds very similar since rant and rage start with the same first letters. Rants tend to be fueled by a lasting feeling of anger or annoyance.

For example, many people rant about injustice done in the world, or an injustice done to them. A rant is much more spontaneous than a vent because anger is an easier emotion to build in a rapid amount of time.

To give a few examples, here are a few topics that are common rant topics: pollution, someone spilling coffee on you, losing an important game or job opportunity, and other similar events. Any event that causes anger can be ranted about.

What A Vent Is

Vents are a process that tend to build up over time. The more an emotion builds up, the more you feel the urge to speak about it. This is what differentiates a vent from a rant. A rant can be over anything that makes you angry, but a vent is a process that’s been built up over time.

For example, if you go through a period of depression, you can vent about that to your friend. Or if you get a streak of bad luck and have several bad days in a row, you can vent about that too. Any event that causes you to bottle up emotions can be vented about.

To summarize, vents are very process-based. They take time to build up, and they can cover a wide array of emotions. Normally, after venting, it feels like you’ve taken a huge weight off your chest.