Meaning & use
antagonism
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Meanings
noununcountable
Strong, open dislike or opposition between people or groups that often leads to conflict.
Grammar: Usually used without an or an, often followed by between or towards.
Patterns
- antagonism between people
- antagonism towards someone
There was deep antagonism between the two families.
His antagonism towards the new manager was obvious.
Years of antagonism made cooperation impossible.
noununcountabletechnicalbiology
In science, the opposing action of two substances or forces, where one reduces the effect of the other.
Grammar: Used in biology and medicine to describe how one agent blocks another.
Patterns
- antagonism between substances
The antagonism between the two drugs lowered their combined effect.
Muscle pairs work through antagonism, one relaxing as the other contracts.
Researchers studied the antagonism of the hormone's receptor.
Common combinations
- open antagonism
- The rivals showed open antagonism in the debate.
- growing antagonism
- Growing antagonism split the committee.
- mutual antagonism
- Their mutual antagonism was well known.
- antagonism towards
- She felt no antagonism towards her critics.
- stir up antagonism
- The speech stirred up antagonism among the workers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hostility
- Hostility is the closest match, but it can be a steady attitude and not necessarily a two-sided clash.
- animosity
- Animosity is a deep feeling of ill will that may stay hidden, while antagonism tends to appear in action.
- rivalry
- Rivalry is competition that need not involve hatred, so it is milder than antagonism.
- enmity
- Enmity is a lasting, formal state of being enemies and sounds more literary.
Opposites
Word family
- antagonist noun
- an opponent or the main opposing character in a story
- antagonize verb
- to make someone hostile
- antagonistic adjective
- showing active opposition
- protagonist noun
- the main character, the opposite of an antagonist
Commonly confused: antagonism or agonism?
antagonism vs agonism
Agonism is a rare term for struggle or contest in theory, and it should not replace antagonism.
Practice
Which word best fits? Years of ___ between the neighbors ended in a legal battle.
Choose one answer.
Antagonism means active hostility, which can lead to a legal fight. Indifference is the lack of any strong feeling, so it does not explain a legal battle.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “antagonism”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.