antipathy
Americannoun
-
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
Related Words
See aversion.
Other Word Forms
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.
“The Lost Boys,” a musical spun from Joel Schumacher’s 1987 horror comedy, won me over despite my antipathy to vampire schlock.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026
His antipathy toward legitimate news outlets isn’t new.
From Salon • Nov. 22, 2025
Historian Tammy L. Kernodle puts the gospel-church influences of Brown in some context, though blaming Nathan’s antipathy toward something like Brown’s “Please, Please, Please” on his cultural background rather than good taste seems a stretch.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 7, 2025
His antipathy to Mr Comey goes back years.
From BBC • Sep. 26, 2025
Or take Thomas Browne, who dismissed the garlic/magnet antipathy as ‘certainly false’ in 1646.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
