Word.ws English Dictionary

heterophobia

heterophobia noun: the fear or resentment of what is different.

Noun

heterophobia (uncountable)

  1. The fear or resentment of what is different.
    • Taguieff writes synonimically^([sic]) of racism and heterophobia (resentment of the different). […] Heterophobia seems to be a focused manifestation of a still wider phenomenon of anxiety aroused by the feeling that one has no control over the situation, […]2013, Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, →ISBN, page 116
  2. The fear or resentment of heterosexuals or heterosexuality.
    • […] a panel of teenagers of LGBT parents […] voiced concern about what they called "heterophobia"—they wished their parents weren't so negative and distrusting of straight people. Even suggesting that heterophobia exists for these children understandably evokes angry and skeptical responses because...2004/2005, Abigail Garner, Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is, pages 213–214
    • Accusing a gay person of heterophobia is like accusing a Jew of Naziphobia.2008 January 20, "Chief Thracian" (username), "Re: Under Attack", in alt.religion.shamanism and other newsgroups, Usenet
    Synonyms:
    heterophobism
  3. The fear or resentment of the opposite sex.

heterophobia meaning in Arabic

heterophobia in Arabic

fear or resentment of heterosexuals or heterosexuality
رهاب الاختلاف

Examples of heterophobia in a sentence

  • […] a panel of teenagers of LGBT parents […] voiced concern about what they called "heterophobia"—they wished their parents weren't so negative and distrusting of straight people.2004/2005, Abigail Garner, Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is, pages 213–214
  • Some gay and lesbian counselors may need to reflect on another bias referred to as heterophobia, which is fear or dislike of heterosexuals […]2011, Mark S. Kiselica, Matt Englar-Carlson, Arthur M. Horne, Counseling Troubled Boys: A Guidebook for Professionals, page 253:

Synonyms of heterophobia

Origin of heterophobia

From hetero- + -phobia.

Words formed from heterophobia

Questions about heterophobia

What does heterophobia mean?
Heterophobia means the fear or resentment of what is different.
What is heterophobia in Arabic?
Heterophobia in Arabic is رهاب الاختلاف. See Heterophobia meaning in Arabic.
How do you use heterophobia in a sentence?
[…] a panel of teenagers of LGBT parents […] voiced concern about what they called "heterophobia"—they wished their parents weren't so negative and distrusting of straight people.
What part of speech is heterophobia?
Heterophobia is a noun.

Words near heterophobia in the dictionary

  1. heterophilous
  2. heterophils
  3. heterophily
  4. heterophobe
  5. heterophobes
  6. heterophobia
  7. heterophobic
  8. heterophobism
  9. heterophone
  10. heterophones
  11. heterophonic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heterophobia (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: “heterophobia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/heterophobia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.