Semantics, but berate implies an aggressive dressing down or criticism. Yelling -- as in raising a voice -- may be a part of that, or not. I've definitely cau

Semantics, but berate implies an aggressive dressing down or criticism. Yelling -- as in raising a voice -- may be a part of that, or not. I've definitely caught a verbal beatdown from people that sounded perfectly calm and reasonably quiet the whole time.