Water-fearing

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Lacking affinity for water; hydrophobic.

    "Molecules with this dual nature are called amphiphiles ('liking both'): in soaps and detergents, they are comprised of a water-loving (hydrophilic) part and a water-fearing (hydrophobic) part."

Synonyms

All synonyms
hydrophobic

Example

More examples

"Molecules with this dual nature are called amphiphiles ('liking both'): in soaps and detergents, they are comprised of a water-loving (hydrophilic) part and a water-fearing (hydrophobic) part."

Etymology

From water + fearing. Alternatively, equivalent to water-fear + -ing.

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