antipathy
Americannoun
-
antipathies
plural
-
a natural, basic, or habitual repugnance; aversion.
- Synonyms:
- hatred, detestation, abhorrence, disgust
- Antonyms:
- attraction
-
an instinctive contrariety or opposition in feeling.
-
an object of natural aversion or habitual dislike.
noun
-
a feeling of intense aversion, dislike, or hostility
-
the object of such a feeling
Synonym Usage
See aversion.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of antipathy
1595–1605; < Latin antipathīa < Greek antipátheia. See anti-, -pathy
Explanation
An antipathy is a deep-seated dislike of something or someone. Usually it's a condition that is long-term, innate, and pretty unlikely to change — like your antipathy for the Red Sox. If you look at the Greek roots of this word — anti- ("against") and pathos ("feeling") — you can see that antipathy is a feeling against someone or something. In general, antipathies are feelings that are kept at least somewhat under wraps and are not out in the open.
Vocabulary lists containing antipathy
Power Prefix: Anti
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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Common Senses: Path ("Feeling")
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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:
Worse were Hong’s attempts to confront her apparent antipathy toward holidays including Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July and even Halloween that appeared on her unscrubbed X account.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2026
"Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you," Bilton wrote.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
The mayoral hopeful didn’t articulate a platform that radically departed from Bass’, and voter antipathy to her muddled messaging showed: she ended the night in third place.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
"Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you," Bilton wrote in a termination letter late Tuesday, according to CBS News.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
I see something there I rarely see—frustration, antipathy.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
After including the C3 last week in my list of unreasonable antipathies, I heard from many fans who begged to differ.
From Washington Post ● May 10, 2022
Put aside the irony of a charge of anti-Semitism hurled against a writer for whom anti-Semitism was one of his most visceral antipathies.
From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2021
Americans like to think about how Pearl Harbor came and we as a country put our antipathies and hatreds aside for a moment to cooperate in defeating Hitler and Mussolini.
From Slate ● Mar. 16, 2020
We wish you the best in your affections and antipathies.
From Fox News ● Dec. 9, 2019
But unimpressionable natures are not so soon softened, nor are natural antipathies so readily eradicated.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
