Inhibition

//ɪnhɪˈbɪʃən// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of inhibiting. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    the action of prohibiting or inhibiting or forbidding (or an instance thereof) wordnet
  3. 3
    A personal feeling of fear or embarrassment that stops one behaving naturally. countable, uncountable

    "Often the guests, affected by the wine drinking, released all inhibitions and made erotic overtures, particularly to the slave cup-bearers."

  4. 4
    (psychology) the conscious exclusion of unacceptable thoughts or desires wordnet
  5. 5
    The process of stopping or retarding a reaction. countable, uncountable
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    the quality of being inhibited wordnet
  2. 7
    A writ from a higher court to an inferior judge to stay proceedings. countable, uncountable
  3. 8
    (physiology) the process whereby nerves can retard or prevent the functioning of an organ or part wordnet
  4. 9
    A recusal. Philippines, countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
prohibitionarrestarrestationarrestmentbanbar

Example

More examples

"Tom lies without any inhibition."

Etymology

From Middle English inhibicioun, inhibicione from Old French inibicion, from Latin inhibitio. Morphologically inhibit + -ion.

Related phrases

contact inhibitioncross-inhibitionmixed inhibitionresponse inhibitiontissue thromboplastin inhibition timetransmarginal inhibitionhang up

More for "inhibition"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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