Meaning & use
antipathy
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
A deep, settled feeling of dislike or opposition toward someone or something.
Grammar: Often followed by toward, to or between: antipathy toward critics.
Patterns
- antipathy toward someone
- antipathy to something
- antipathy between people
She felt a strong antipathy toward people who boast.
There was long-standing antipathy between the two families.
His antipathy to change slowed the whole project.
Word forms
| plural | antipathies |
|---|
Common combinations
- a deep antipathy
- He felt a deep antipathy for crowds.
- mutual antipathy
- The two rivals shared a mutual antipathy.
- feel antipathy toward
- Many voters feel antipathy toward the proposal.
- open antipathy
- The coach showed open antipathy toward the referee.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hostility
- Hostility is active and shows in behavior, while antipathy can be a private feeling.
- aversion
- Aversion is a strong wish to avoid something, rather than a feeling against a person.
- animosity
- Animosity is a bitter resentment, often toward a particular person, and sounds angrier than antipathy.
- dislike
- Dislike is the plain, everyday word and is milder than antipathy.
Opposites
Word family
- antipathetic adjective
- feeling or causing strong dislike
- antipathetical adjective
- a less common form of antipathetic
- sympathy noun
- the opposite-sounding word meaning shared feeling
- apathy noun
- a lack of interest or feeling
Commonly confused: antipathy or apathy?
antipathy vs apathy
Apathy means not caring at all, while antipathy means actively disliking.
Practice
Her ___ toward bullying was clear to everyone who knew her.
Choose one answer.
Antipathy toward means strong dislike of. Sympathy and empathy are positive, and apathy means not caring, which would not be described as clear opposition.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “antipathy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.