Hostility

//hɒˈstɪlɪti// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being hostile. uncountable

    "My resentment and anger towards you caused hostility and a division between us."

  2. 2
    violent action that is hostile and usually unprovoked wordnet
  3. 3
    A hostile action, especially a military action. See hostilities for specific plural definition. countable

    "As the revivals died down in the 1740s, the revivalist camp made concessions to their opponents, admonished prorevivalists who continued with the hostilities, and generally sought to heal divisions."

  4. 4
    a hostile (very unfriendly) disposition wordnet
  5. 5
    the feeling of a hostile person wordnet
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    a state of deep-seated ill-will wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
aggressionantagonismantagonismenmitywarabhorrence

Example

More examples

"I have no personal hostility to the system."

Etymology

From Middle English hostilitie, hostilite, from Old French hostilité, from Latin hostīlitās. By surface analysis, hostile + -ity.

Related phrases

horizontal hostility

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.