repugnance
Americannoun
-
the state of being repugnant.
-
strong distaste, aversion, or objection; antipathy.
- Antonyms:
- liking, attraction
-
contradictoriness or inconsistency.
- Synonyms:
- irreconcilability, incompatibility, contrariety
- Antonyms:
- compatibility
Synonym Usage
See dislike.
Etymology
Origin of repugnance
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French < Latin repugnantia, equivalent to repugn ( āre ) to repugn + -antia -ance
Explanation
Repugnance means strong distaste for something. If you love animals, you probably feel repugnance for people who mistreat their horses. The word repugnance comes from Latin root words, re, meaning back, and pugnare, to fight. When we use repugnance, we don't just mean the feeling of fighting back or resisting, but also a feeling of horror or sickness that causes you to resist in the first place. If something grosses you out, you feel repugnance for it. Repugnance can also express a feeling of moral horror: you probably feel repugnance at photographs of torture.
Vocabulary lists containing repugnance
Emotions on Display
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Frankenstein
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Treasure Island
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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.
Her Coachella set stared down repugnance and pushed against it, radiating so brightly it consumed the darkness, if only for a night.
From Salon • Apr. 16, 2025
“Disgust necessarily involves particular thoughts, characteristically very intrusive and unriddable thoughts about the repugnance of that which is its object.”
From New York Times • Dec. 27, 2021
Some combination of awe and repugnance and confusion that she’s spent so many of her obviously prodigious talents spinning stories for men who need their stories spun.
From Washington Post • Aug. 27, 2020
It highlights his father’s repugnance for “prejudices toward women, race and creed,” Cash says.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 31, 2019
All their repugnance was contained in the neat balance of the triangles—a balance that soothed him, transferred some of its equilibrium to him.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
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.
