repulsion

American  

[ri-puhl-shuhn] / rɪˈpʌl ʃən /

noun

• repulsions
  plural

1. the act of repulsing or the state of being repulsed.

2. the feeling of being repelled, as by the thought or presence of something; distaste, repugnance, or aversion.

3. Physics. the force that acts between bodies of like electric charge or magnetic polarity, tending to separate them.

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repulsion British  

/ rɪˈpʌlʃən /

noun

1. a feeling of disgust or aversion

2. physics a force tending to separate two objects, such as the force between two like electric charges or magnetic poles

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• interrepulsion
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• repulsions
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of repulsion

1375–1425; late Middle English < Middle French < Medieval Latin repulsiōn- (stem of Late Latin repulsiō ), equivalent to Latin repuls ( us ) ( see repulse) + -iōn- -ion

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Explanation

Repulsion is getting grossed out. If the thought of great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts makes you recoil in horror, then you've experienced repulsion, or an intense aversion to something. Where there's repulsion, there's disgust. Maybe gagging. Perhaps a few screams. In physics, repulsion describes how two magnets with the same charge jump away from each other, kind of like how most of us leap from the table when mom puts down a plate of Brussels sprouts.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

repulsion repulsions

Or they could simply be arresting abstractions in a sculpture that sits aesthetically between formal attraction and repulsion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

At the time, watching these videos didn’t elicit nausea or repulsion in Jemima—they came across as amusing.

From Slate ● May 12, 2026

Polling data backs up this anecdotal display of repulsion towards racist violence.

From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2026

For Tinashe, the incongruity of being the kind of person who has their Zoom camera off a day after they sang about seduction, repulsion and red flags in front of thousands seems the entire point.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2024

The helium nuclei will be jammed together still more tightly, so much so that they begin to stick together, the hooks of their short-range nuclear forces becoming engaged despite the mutual electrical repulsion.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Ms. Dixon often seesaws between a work’s attractions and its repulsions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

Other interactions, such as nuclear-nuclear repulsions and nuclear-electron attractions, are also involved in the final arrangement that atoms adopt in a particular molecular structure.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

We can also learn how to get over our repulsions.

From The Verge ● May 9, 2018

Mr. Hastings writes incisively about the attractions and repulsions of the new media gossip.

From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2014

If the attractions and repulsions be so circumstanced as to be able to produce motion, they are sources of working-power, but not otherwise.

From Fragments of science, V. 1-2 by John Tyndall

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