【Scold】 ,  【upbraid】 ,  【rate】 ,  【berate】 ,  【tongue-lash】 ,  【jaw】 ,  【bawl】 ,  【chew out】 ,  【wig】 ,  【rail】 ,  【revile】 ,  【vituperate】  can all mean to reprove, reproach, or censure angrily, harshly, and more or less abusively.

【Scold】 , the term most common in ordinary use, usually implies a rebuking in a mood of irritation or ill temper, with or without sufficient justification.

【Upbraid】  stresses reproaching or censuring on more definite grounds than  【scold】 does and usually suggests justification or justifiable anger.

【Rate】  and the more common  【berate】 usually imply more or less prolonged, angry, and sometimes abusive scolding either in censuring or in reprimanding.

Fairly close synonyms of  【rate】  and  【berate】  are the expressive  【tongue-lash】 which stresses the punitive effect on the person berated and the crude terms  【jaw】 ,  【bawl】 , usually with out,  【chew out】 , and  【wig】 (chiefly British), which emphasize the noisy prolonged ranting which usually attends a berating.

【Rail】  carries a more definite implication of either abusive or scoffing language than  【rate】  or  【berate】 .

【Revile】  carries a much stronger implication of abusive, scurrilous language than  【rail】 does but little, if any, suggestion of scoffing; it often also implies deliberate vilification.

【Vituperate】  implies more violence in the censure and in the method of attack than does  【revile】 , but otherwise they are close synonyms.