Meaning & use
inhibition
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A worried or self-conscious feeling that stops a person from speaking or behaving in a relaxed, natural way.
Grammar: Usually plural when countable: lose your inhibitions; uncountable in a general sense: a lack of inhibition.
Patterns
- lose your inhibitions
- have no inhibitions about something
A little music helped the shy guests lose their inhibitions.
She has no inhibition about singing in public.
Fear of failure can create a deep inhibition in young writers.
noununcountabletechnicalbiology
The slowing down or blocking of a process, such as a chemical reaction or a signal in the nervous system.
Grammar: Usually uncountable and followed by of: the inhibition of an enzyme.
Patterns
- inhibition of something
The drug works through the inhibition of a key enzyme.
Inhibition of the signal prevents the muscle from contracting.
Scientists measured the inhibition of bacterial growth in the dish.
Word forms
| plural | inhibitions |
|---|
Common combinations
- lose your inhibitions
- After a few jokes the whole team lost their inhibitions.
- without inhibition
- The children danced without inhibition.
- shed inhibitions
- Travelling alone helped her shed her inhibitions.
- free from inhibition
- The singer's style is free from inhibition and full of energy.
- enzyme inhibition
- Enzyme inhibition can slow down a reaction in the cell.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reserve
- Reserve describes a quiet, held-back manner that is part of someone's character, while inhibition names a feeling that blocks specific behavior.
- restraint
- Restraint is often deliberate self-control, but inhibition is usually an unwanted or automatic holding back.
- shyness
- Shyness is a general trait of social discomfort, whereas inhibition points to what it stops you from doing.
Opposites
Word family
- inhibit verb
- to hold back or block something
- inhibited adjective
- too self-conscious to behave naturally
- inhibitor noun
- a substance that slows or blocks a process
- uninhibited adjective
- free and relaxed in behavior
- inhibitory adjective
- tending to block or slow something
Commonly confused: inhibition or prohibition?
inhibition vs prohibition
Prohibition is an official ban on something, while inhibition is an inner feeling or a biological slowing down.
Practice
The workshop helped nervous speakers lose their ____ and talk freely.
Choose one answer.
Lose your inhibitions is the set phrase for becoming less self-conscious. Prohibitions are official bans, and exhibitions are public displays.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “inhibition”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.