Repulsive

//ɹɪˈpʌlsɪv// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Tending to rouse aversion or to repulse; disgusting.

    "a repulsive smell"

  2. 2
    Having the capacity to repel.
  3. 3
    Cold; reserved; forbidding.
Adjective
  1. 1
    possessing the ability to repel wordnet
  2. 2
    so extremely ugly as to be terrifying wordnet
  3. 3
    offensive to the mind wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
detestabledisgustinghideousrepellentabhorrentabhorrent

Example

More examples

"Death, in whatever form, is repulsive."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French repulsif, from Medieval Latin repulsivus, from Latin repulsus. By surface analysis, repuls(e) + -ive. Compare typologically Polish odpychający (< pchnąć), Russian отта́лкивающий (ottálkivajuščij) (< толкну́ть (tolknútʹ)).

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