aversive
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of aversive
First recorded in 1590–1600; avers(ion) + -ive
Explanation
Things that are aversive repel you or make you change your mind. An aversive smell in your friend's kitchen before her dinner party might cause you to lose your appetite. The adjective aversive is good for describing unpleasant or repellent things, like an aversive reaction to riding in a small boat on a choppy sea. It's more commonly used in very formal writing, however, especially on the topics of psychology and sociology. An aversive stimulus in psychological studies tends to change behavior through some kind of punishment or unpleasant sensation. The Latin root of aversive is aversus, "turned away or turned back."
Vocabulary lists containing aversive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Bailey offers practical techniques for overcoming the aversive elements of our goals, which are most likely to lead to procrastination.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 1, 2026
The participants were then asked to recontextualize the stimulus by generating new kinds of thoughts about an image to make it less aversive, before a neutral image was presented followed by another dislikable image.
From Science Daily • Apr. 3, 2024
Four in five of those who participated in the study reported using aversive training methods, such as shouting, which vets said could increase fear and anxiety.
From BBC • Jan. 22, 2024
As this finding would indicate, many animals, including humans, find the taste of ammonium chloride to be aversive — but as the popularity of salmiak would indicate, that’s not universally the case.
From Salon • Oct. 30, 2023
But she only bowed slightly to him, with a sidelong, aversive glance, and walked out of the room with a slow, rigid pace, like one that controls a tendency to giddiness.
From Indian Summer by Howells, William Dean
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
