Word.ws English Dictionary

antipathies

antipathies is the plural of antipathy.

Meaning of antipathy

Noun

antipathy (countable and uncountable, plural antipathies)

  1. (uncountable) Often followed by against, between, for, or to: a (deep) feeling of dislike or repugnance, normally towards a person and less often towards a thing, often without any conscious reasoning; aversion, distaste, hostility; (countable) an instance of this.
    • For of our Alphabet the .P. doth omenouſly begin / Of theſe this much diſtaſted Ranck, […] vvere other Rankes not free / Of Publique-vveales Antipathie, prooling and peruerſe, P.1606, William Warner, “The Fourteenth Booke. Chapter LXXX.”, in A Continuance of Albions England: […], London: […] Felix Kyngston [and Richard Bradock?] for George Potter, […], →OCLC, page 344
    Antonyms:
    sympathy
  2. (uncountable) Natural contrariety or incompatibility between things, as a result of which they negatively affect or oppose each other; (countable) an instance of this.
    • Oil and water have antipathy.
    Antonyms:
    sympathy
  3. (countable) A person or thing that one has a (deep) feeling of dislike or repugnance towards; an anathema, a bête noire, a bugbear.
    • Let him be to thee, an Antipathy, / A thing thy nature ſvveates at, and turnes backvvard: […]c. 1607–1621 (date written), [Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher; Philip Massinger], The Tragedy of Thierry King of France, and His Brother Theodoret. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas...
  4. (countable, obsolete) A person or thing that has a (deep) feeling of dislike or repugnance towards another person or thing; a hater.
    • And therefore having firſt vvith horror vveigh'd / VVhat tis to die, and to die yong, to part vvith / All pleaſures, and delights: laſtly, to goe / VVhere all Antipathies to comfort dvvell / Furies behind, about thee, and before thee, / […] let deſpayre / Preuent the hangmans ſvvord, and on this...1620 (first performance; published 1622), Philip Messenger [i.e., Philip Massinger]; Thomas Dekker, The Virgin Martir, a Tragedie. […], London: […] Bernard Alsop for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, Act IV...
  5. The quality of being antipathetic: not easily united by grafting.

Questions about antipathies

What is antipathies the plural of?
Antipathies is the plural of antipathy.

Words near antipathies in the dictionary

  1. antipathic
  2. antipathical
  3. antipathically
  4. antipathid
  5. antipathids
  6. antipathies
  7. antipathise
  8. antipathised
  9. antipathises
  10. antipathising
  11. antipathist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: antipathies (page history and authors); antipathy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “antipathies.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/antipathies. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.