Xenophobic

//ˌzɛn.əˈfəʊ.bɪk// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A xenophobe.

    "So Buzz Bissinger sees fit that we give up on the ideal of Olympism and give in to xenophobics, terrorists, drug abusers, profiteers and human rights abusers?"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Exhibiting or characterised by xenophobia, a fear or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or extraterrestial life.

    "Residents of Plettenberg Bay this week launched violent xenophobic attacks on foreign Africans living in informal settlements, beating them and ransacking their houses"

Adjective
  1. 1
    suffering from xenophobia; having abnormal fear or hatred of the strange or foreign wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
afraidantiforeignbiasedchauvinisticcoloreddoctrinaire

Example

More examples

"While small-minded, xenophobic or outrightly racist people falsely believe that only persons of Anglo-Saxon or German origin are to be considered Americans, the United States has long prided itself on being a so-called melting pot, embracing both its Indigenous population and immigrants who have settled there from elsewhere."

Etymology

From xeno- + -phobic, from Ancient Greek ξένος (xénos, “foreign, strange”) + φόβος (phóbos, “fear”).

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