Heterophobia
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The fear or resentment of what is different. uncountable
"Taguieff writes synonimically^([sic]) of racism and heterophobia (resentment of the different). […] Heterophobia seems to be a focused manifestation of a still wider phenomenon of anxiety aroused by the feeling that one has no control over the situation, […]"
- 2 The fear or resentment of heterosexuals or heterosexuality. uncountable
"[…] a panel of teenagers of LGBT parents […] voiced concern about what they called "heterophobia"—they wished their parents weren't so negative and distrusting of straight people. Even suggesting that heterophobia exists for these children understandably evokes angry and skeptical responses because homo-hostile people have used the same word to support a bogus claim that gay rights discrimination against heterosexuals."
- 3 The fear or resentment of the opposite sex. uncountable
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Taguieff writes synonimically^([sic]) of racism and heterophobia (resentment of the different). […] Heterophobia seems to be a focused manifestation of a still wider phenomenon of anxiety aroused by the feeling that one has no control over the situation, […]"
Etymology
From hetero- + -phobia.
More for "heterophobia"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.