hate
verb (used with object)
to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest.
hate
1 American
[hayt]
/ heɪt /
verb (used with object)
-
hates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hated,
past participle, past
-
hating
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
hates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hated,
past participle, past
-
hating
present participle
noun
-
hate
plural
-
intense dislike; extreme aversion or hostility.
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the object of extreme aversion or hostility.
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(in a video game) the focus or targeting of an enemy on a player character; enmity; aggro: As a tank, pretty much your number-one priority is getting and holding hate.
The Black Mage got hate, but it’s really his own fault for casting those level-four spells back to back.
As a tank, pretty much your number-one priority is getting and holding hate.
adjective
verb phrase
hate-
2
American
hate
British
/ heɪt /
verb
-
to dislike (something) intensely; detest
-
(intr) to be unwilling (to be or do something)
noun
-
intense dislike
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informal a person or thing that is hated (esp in the phrase pet hate )
-
(modifier) expressing or arousing feelings of hatred
hate mail
hate
Idioms
Usage
What is a basic definition of hate? Hate is used as a verb to mean to passionately and intensely dislike something or to dislike or be unwilling. As a noun, hate is used to mean an intense loathing. Hate has a few other meanings as a verb, noun, and adjective. If someone hates something, they dislike it so intensely that rage or disgust fills their body when they come into contact with it. A person who hates something is called a hater.
- Real-life examples: Children often hate vegetables. Enemies are people who hate each other. A person who hates dogs never wants to be around them. An environmentalist hates pollution and the destruction of rainforests.
- Used in a sentence: Mark hates Ashley so much that he won’t even be in the same room as her.
- Real-life examples: Children sometimes hate to do chores so much that their parents yell at them. Still, parents often hate to say goodbye when their children grow up and move away from home.
- Used in a sentence: I hate to say it but I think my mother was right.
- Used in a sentence: The Grinch was consumed by his hate of Christmas.
- Real-life examples: The Ku Klux Klan is a hate group, meaning the members hate something specific or a specific group of people, in this case chiefly Black people. Social media websites forbid hate speech. An unpopular celebrity is likely to receive hate mail.
- Used in a sentence: Reading the hate speech about people’s skin color makes me sick.
Synonym Usage
Hate, abhor, detest, abominate imply feeling intense dislike or aversion toward something. Hate, the simple and general word, suggests passionate dislike and a feeling of enmity: to hate autocracy. Abhor expresses a deep-rooted horror and a sense of repugnance or complete rejection: to abhor cruelty; Nature abhors a vacuum. Detest implies intense, even vehement, dislike and antipathy, besides a sense of disdain: to detest a combination of ignorance and arrogance. Abominate expresses a strong feeling of disgust and repulsion toward something thought of as unworthy, unlucky, or the like: to abominate treachery.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hatesimple
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hatessimple
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have hatedperfect
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has hatedperfect
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am hatingprogressive
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are hatingprogressive
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is hatingprogressive
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have been hatingperfect progressive
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has been hatingperfect progressive
Past
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hatedsimple
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had hatedperfect
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was hatingprogressive
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were hatingprogressive
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had been hatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hate
First recorded before 900; Middle English hat(i)en, Old English hatian (verb); cognate with Dutch haten, Old Norse hata, Gothic hatan, German hassen
Explanation
Do you dislike getting up early on weekends? How much do you dislike it? So much that you'd stay in bed even if your favorite movie star came by your house to make you your favorite breakfast? In that case, you could say you hate it. Hate is a powerfully strong verb, and it's one you should probably save for those things you really detest, that you have a passionately negative feeling about. An exception is when you use it in a sentence like, "I hate to bother you, but I'd like another cup of coffee." In this case, you're not using the word hate literally, but in more of a polite way; you simply want to emphasize that you're not trying to bother someone while still getting what you want.
Vocabulary lists containing hate
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:
A lot of people hate jet skis, to say nothing of jet skiers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
An AFP journalist saw hundreds of protesters stretching several blocks in Manhattan on Friday chanting "No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here" and "No ICE."
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
Comedian Romesh Ranganathan joked that his mum was going to "absolutely hate this", as the the group gathered in a chant led by the booming voice of big dog actor Michael Sheen.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
"We could have very easily been consumed by hate and anger and rage at what happened – and those feelings are still there," said Katie.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
“OK, here is the best apology I’ve got. And if you still hate me…well, then you still hate me.”
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
The county will also use the hotline to track incidents of hate- and bias-motivated crimes that may not necessarily be reported to law enforcement.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2022
The Stop Hate Hotline would also allow the county to more accurately track incidents of hate- and bias-motivated crimes.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 9, 2022
The number of hate- and bias-related crimes increased 34 percent — from 47 to 63 — from 2016 to 2017, according to data from Maryland State Police.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2019
"The scariest part is that it's usually the boy next door," says William Johnston, who directs the nation's oldest hate- crimes police unit in Boston.
From Time Magazine Archive
Wall Street normally hates price cuts, but some analysts didn’t mind the ones announced by Target on Tuesday.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
I use that term intentionally, by the way, because Ellroy hates it.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
Damon’s Odysseus is numbed by the massacre of Troy’s civilians; Fiennes’ hates himself for leading the best men of Ithaca to their death, gutting his own community in the heedless destruction of another.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Ron Burda, 85, recently bought a new Toyota RAV4 and can attest that he hates the driver-assistance technology—but not because he’s older.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Mom hates charity even more than Dad does, so I thought maybe things would be okay.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
I’m Iranian American, and in this world today, I’m from two of the most hated countries in the world — Iran and America — but I’m extremely loved as a person.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Asked about the impact of AI, she said she believed the industry was doing a "really great job" at rejecting it, because players hated it.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
He tried golf, was terrible at it, hated it, and went back to work manufacturing $5 electric toothbrushes because he found it more engaging than the golf course.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026
Golding has tried to play down the significance of going up against his old boss—who happens to be the most hated man in Mississippi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
I hated that the question even popped into my head.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
He stood there and watched as the Rays celebration raged on, reflecting on another failed season and, he said, “just hating every single moment of it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
The actors will soon slip into their 1967 costumes as the impoverished Greasers and the privileged Socs — and spend the next two hours hating each other onstage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
We’re mostly beyond hating and bragging at this point, happy to be vertical or angled a bit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
"She was the leader of our community, and I wonder if somewhere that was also part of the reason her partner ended up hating her so much," says Milne.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Or maybe he was heartsick, hating her for what her daddy did to her but still not willing to give her up.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
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.
