hate
verb (used with object)
to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest.
hate
1 American
[hayt]
/ heɪt /
verb (used with object)
-
hates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hated,
past participle, past
-
hating
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
hates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hated,
past participle, past
-
hating
present participle
noun
-
hate
plural
-
intense dislike; extreme aversion or hostility.
-
the object of extreme aversion or hostility.
-
(in a video game) the focus or targeting of an enemy on a player character; enmity; aggro: As a tank, pretty much your number-one priority is getting and holding hate.
The Black Mage got hate, but it’s really his own fault for casting those level-four spells back to back.
As a tank, pretty much your number-one priority is getting and holding hate.
adjective
verb phrase
hate-
2
American
hate
British
/ heɪt /
verb
-
to dislike (something) intensely; detest
-
(intr) to be unwilling (to be or do something)
noun
-
intense dislike
-
informal a person or thing that is hated (esp in the phrase pet hate )
-
(modifier) expressing or arousing feelings of hatred
hate mail
hate
Idioms
Usage
What is a basic definition of hate? Hate is used as a verb to mean to passionately and intensely dislike something or to dislike or be unwilling. As a noun, hate is used to mean an intense loathing. Hate has a few other meanings as a verb, noun, and adjective. If someone hates something, they dislike it so intensely that rage or disgust fills their body when they come into contact with it. A person who hates something is called a hater.
- Real-life examples: Children often hate vegetables. Enemies are people who hate each other. A person who hates dogs never wants to be around them. An environmentalist hates pollution and the destruction of rainforests.
- Used in a sentence: Mark hates Ashley so much that he won’t even be in the same room as her.
- Real-life examples: Children sometimes hate to do chores so much that their parents yell at them. Still, parents often hate to say goodbye when their children grow up and move away from home.
- Used in a sentence: I hate to say it but I think my mother was right.
- Used in a sentence: The Grinch was consumed by his hate of Christmas.
- Real-life examples: The Ku Klux Klan is a hate group, meaning the members hate something specific or a specific group of people, in this case chiefly Black people. Social media websites forbid hate speech. An unpopular celebrity is likely to receive hate mail.
- Used in a sentence: Reading the hate speech about people’s skin color makes me sick.
Synonym Usage
Hate, abhor, detest, abominate imply feeling intense dislike or aversion toward something. Hate, the simple and general word, suggests passionate dislike and a feeling of enmity: to hate autocracy. Abhor expresses a deep-rooted horror and a sense of repugnance or complete rejection: to abhor cruelty; Nature abhors a vacuum. Detest implies intense, even vehement, dislike and antipathy, besides a sense of disdain: to detest a combination of ignorance and arrogance. Abominate expresses a strong feeling of disgust and repulsion toward something thought of as unworthy, unlucky, or the like: to abominate treachery.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
hatesimple
-
hatessimple
-
have hatedperfect
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has hatedperfect
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am hatingprogressive
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are hatingprogressive
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is hatingprogressive
-
have been hatingperfect progressive
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has been hatingperfect progressive
Past
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hatedsimple
-
had hatedperfect
-
was hatingprogressive
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were hatingprogressive
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had been hatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hate
First recorded before 900; Middle English hat(i)en, Old English hatian (verb); cognate with Dutch haten, Old Norse hata, Gothic hatan, German hassen
Explanation
Do you dislike getting up early on weekends? How much do you dislike it? So much that you'd stay in bed even if your favorite movie star came by your house to make you your favorite breakfast? In that case, you could say you hate it. Hate is a powerfully strong verb, and it's one you should probably save for those things you really detest, that you have a passionately negative feeling about. An exception is when you use it in a sentence like, "I hate to bother you, but I'd like another cup of coffee." In this case, you're not using the word hate literally, but in more of a polite way; you simply want to emphasize that you're not trying to bother someone while still getting what you want.
Vocabulary lists containing hate
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.
See Examples For:
I felt that those textures signaled … I hate using the word “dystopian,” but the dystopian future.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026
Separate reviews were also commissioned into antisemitism in healthcare and into public order and hate crime laws.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026
“The old dictum that ‘markets hate uncertainty’ is forever true, and there is more than enough uncertainty around AI for many bucketloads of investor discontent,” Colas wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
"Love it, hate it, or fear it, AI is here, rapidly becoming a key driver of countries' relative fortunes in the world economy," said Georgieva last week.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
I try to prepare myself for Dara’s date with Elliott—you know, motivational words like, “You don’t hate your fave cousin” and “Who needs boys anyway?”
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The county will also use the hotline to track incidents of hate- and bias-motivated crimes that may not necessarily be reported to law enforcement.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2022
The Stop Hate Hotline would also allow the county to more accurately track incidents of hate- and bias-motivated crimes.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 9, 2022
The number of hate- and bias-related crimes increased 34 percent — from 47 to 63 — from 2016 to 2017, according to data from Maryland State Police.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2019
"The scariest part is that it's usually the boy next door," says William Johnston, who directs the nation's oldest hate- crimes police unit in Boston.
From Time Magazine Archive
Although Hanawalt might be an unapologetic horse girl, she really hates a horse pun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026
“I was talking to a Republican consultant who ran one of the big super PACs and he, like, hates all of their media consultants,” Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, told me.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
Everybody hates them, everyone thinks that they cheated and he just walks on the pitch and says, 'give me the ball lads, let me have some fun'.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Wall Street normally hates price cuts, but some analysts didn’t mind the ones announced by Target on Tuesday.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
“That’s what Andrew Peckleman figured out. His uncle Woody hates squirrels, on account of all his bird feeders. So he doesn’t want anybody else in town reading about them, either.”
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
But here’s one example: Before I had electrolysis to remove my facial hair, I hated seeing and feeling the stubble on my face.
From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2026
I thought of my father, who hated every boat he ever owned—a feeling that went both ways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
Her mother, Gemma, says Audrina has always hated hospital food and is determined to bring about change.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Growing up, I was one of those reflexively contrarian teenagers who hated anything popular and found value in almost anything obscure, independent or weird.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
I hated to admit it, but going with James had provided me with a little hope that everything would be all right.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
He stood there and watched as the Rays celebration raged on, reflecting on another failed season and, he said, “just hating every single moment of it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
He ended up "hating" tennis and still does.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
Such fabrics are hydrophobic, or water hating, similar to grease and oils.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
In this age when animus eats discernment like the rich eat caviar, the luxury we really can’t afford is hating the good guys just because it’s easy — even if they’re billionaires.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026
But the truth was, hating Maya-Jade made him feel so much better than breathing did.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
