distasteful
Americanadjective
-
unpleasant, offensive, or causing dislike.
a distasteful chore.
- Synonyms:
- repulsive, repugnant, disagreeable
-
unpleasant to the taste.
a distasteful medicine.
- Synonyms:
- unsavory, unpalatable
-
showing distaste or dislike.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of distasteful
Explanation
Things that you find disagreeable or unpleasant are distasteful. A distasteful movie might disturb you so much that you leave the theater before it's over. While certain kinds of food might be distasteful to you — overcooked vegetables, for example — you can find non-edible things just as distasteful, despite the taste within the word. This adjective uses the sense of taste that means "preference" or "tendency to like something," along with the prefix dis-, "not" or "the opposite of." You can, for example, find things like greed and cruelty to be just as distasteful as overcooked broccoli.
Vocabulary lists containing distasteful
Power Suffix: -ful
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 6
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The Bad Beginning
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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.
This was particularly true of Berlin, a cosmopolitan city full of people who found the Nazis culturally distasteful.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026
The frontman took umbrage at Jackson presenting himself as a messianic figure, protecting hundreds of children, calling the display "distasteful and crap".
From BBC • Feb. 27, 2026
In part, that’s because even if the threats weren’t enough on their own, the texting story showed distasteful sides of Jones’ private personality.
From Slate • Nov. 4, 2025
Any evidence to the contrary is dismissed as airy-fairy daydreaming or a distasteful fluke.
From Salon • Sep. 7, 2025
By contrast, Durham’s leading white newspaper denounced the idea of a boycott, calling it “dynamite” and “a distasteful aggressive suggestion...quite unfair to the theaters.”
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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.
