abhor
Americanverb (used with object)
-
abhors,
present (3rd person singular)
-
abhorred,
past participle, past
-
abhorring
present participle
verb
Synonym Usage
See hate.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
abhorsimple
-
abhorssimple
-
have abhorredperfect
-
has abhorredperfect
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am abhorringprogressive
-
are abhorringprogressive
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is abhorringprogressive
-
have been abhorringperfect progressive
-
has been abhorringperfect progressive
Past
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abhorredsimple
-
had abhorredperfect
-
was abhorringprogressive
-
were abhorringprogressive
-
had been abhorringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of abhor
First recorded before 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin abhorrēre “to shrink back from, shudder at,” equivalent to ab- ab- + horrēre “to bristle, tremble”
Explanation
If you abhor something, it gives you a feeling of complete hatred. Chances are you abhor that kid who used to torture the frogs in biology class. Abhor is from Latin abhorrere — "to shrink back in horror." It is the strongest way in English to express hatred, even stronger than loathe. We only use abhor in formal contexts; you might say "I abhor that man," but you would be less likely to say "I abhor spinach" unless you tend to express yourself in highfalutin terms no matter what the occasion.
Vocabulary lists containing abhor
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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Grade 9, List 1
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Romeo and Juliet
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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.
See Examples For:
The front-runner, 60-year-old BNP chairman Tarique Rahman, represents the dynastic politics that many educated Bangladeshis abhor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
Briloff would say that markets abhor uncertainty, and less frequent reporting only adds more.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
“I disagree with or even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him isn’t the answer either.”
From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2025
“We abhor and condemn all incidents like this in the strongest terms and continue to support Police Scotland with their ongoing investigation.”
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2024
Lord Darlington came to abhor anti-Semitism; I heard him express his disgust on several separate occasions when confronted with anti-Semitic sentiments.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
Martin abhors a perfect soul, and loves a human heart in conflict with itself and the world.
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2026
During the conversation, Muir makes it clear he abhors crowded trades.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 22, 2026
That, however, would require something Generation Z abhors: boredom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025
Nature abhors a vacuum and markets aren’t all that keen on it either.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2025
He says that when a species becomes extinct, some other species moves in to fill up the ecological niche, because Nature abhors a vacuum.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
By the late-19th century, “Grub Street” had become a generic term for ambitious, worldly—and mostly talentless—writers, everything the classicist Gissing abhorred.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
Petitions poured into the office of Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown, a Democrat who believed Chessman guilty but abhorred the death penalty on religious grounds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2024
Senators, Sandvine later announced that it would no longer work with Belarus, saying that it abhorred “the use of technology to suppress the free flow of information resulting in human rights violations.”
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
Her mother, Rose Mary Walls, was a hardy free spirit who hoped to succeed as a painter and abhorred the idea of bourgeois life.
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2023
To agitate him thus deeply, by a resistance he so abhorred, was cruel: to yield was out of the question.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
He was a fighter for poor minorities, abhorring the gang violence that had taken over in his adopted home of Los Angeles and working for decades to help disadvantaged inner-city kids.
From Washington Times ● May 20, 2023
Politically, he remained exceptionally conservative, abhorring social unrest and invariably supporting law and order.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 18, 2017
The Legion sought a more national and collective or communal basis for the economy, while abhorring the materialism of capitalism and of socialism.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2017
The libretto, by Mr. Morrison and John Cox, an opera director and Wilde scholar, is a high-minded affair, preaching tolerance and abhorring bigotry at every turn.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2013
It ought to be the abhorring of all mankind, as it is of all other flesh; and the extensive circulation of your timely and powerful antidote, cannot fail of doing great good.
From A Disquisition on the Evils of Using Tobacco and the Necessity of Immediate and Entire Reformation by Orin Fowler
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.
