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:
“Your antipathy to the future of the show is loud and clear.”
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
And as the tribunes who stir up the populace’s antipathy toward Coriolanus, William DeMeritt and Zuzanna Szadkowski are bland, seemingly unwilling to decide whether their characters are nefarious or just mildly meddlesome.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026
Rin Ushiyama, a sociologist at Queen's University Belfast, says sympathy for Yamagami is largely rooted in "widespread distrust and antipathy in Japan towards controversial religions like the Unification Church".
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2026
Della Porta was preoccupied with sympathy and antipathy, while Garzoni and Gilbert refused to use such categories.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The unfailingly good-natured Bombay tried to play peacemaker, but Burton and Speke clashed often, piling up resentments and mutual antipathies that would never be fully resolved.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2022
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
One widely reproduced entry lists, in two vertical columns, Morton’s enthusiasms and antipathies.
From New York Times ● Aug. 29, 2018
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.
