hostility
UK/hɒsˈtɪlɪti//hɑˈstɪlɪti/
hostility noun: the state of being hostile.
Noun
hostility (countable and uncountable, plural hostilities)
- The state of being hostile.
- My resentment and anger towards you caused hostility and a division between us.
- There is no hostilitie so excellent, as that which is absolutely Christian.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- antagonism, opposition, enmity, animosity, antipathy, hatred, unfriendliness, animus
- A hostile action, especially a military action. See hostilities for specific plural definition.
- As the revivals died down in the 1740s, the revivalist camp made concessions to their opponents, admonished prorevivalists who continued with the hostilities, and generally sought to heal divisions.2006, Michael P. Young, Bearing Witness Against Sin
hostility meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
hostility in Hindi
- state of being hostile
- वैर vair, शत्रुता śatrutā, बैर bair
hostility in Tamil
- வைரகம், பகைசாதித்தல்
hostility in Urdu
- state of being hostile
- دشمنی duśmanī, عداوت 'adāvat
hostility in Bengali
- state of being hostile
- বিবাদ bibad, শত্রুতা śotruta
- hostile action, especially a military action
- বিবাদ bibad
More languagesFewer languages
- hostility in Malayalam
- വിരോധം virōdhaṁ, വൈരം vairaṁ
- hostility in Kannada
- ಶತ್ರುತ್ವ, ದ್ವೇಷ, ವೈರ, ವೈಷಮ್ಯ
- hostility in Sanskrit
- इरस् iras, द्वेषस् dveṣas
- hostility in Pashto
- دښمني dox̌maní, عداوت adāwát
- hostility in Arabic
- عَدَاوَة ʕadāwa, عَدَاء ʕadāʔ
- hostility in Malay
- permusuhan, pertempuran
- hostility in Persian
- دشمنی došmani, عداوت 'adâvat, خصومت xosumat
Examples of hostility in a sentence
- But with Goodison Park openly directing its full hostility towards Atkinson, Liverpool went ahead when Carroll turned in his first Premier League goal of the season after 70 minutes.2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0-2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 03 Apr 2017:
- A key reason for popular hostility to immigrants is that to many people, particularly within working-class communities, immigration has become a symbol of unacceptable change.2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 10 Oct...
Synonyms of hostility
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of hostility
| plural | hostilities |
|---|
Origin of hostility
From Middle English hostilitie, hostilite, from Old French hostilité, from Latin hostīlitās. By surface analysis, hostile + -ity.
Words formed from hostility
Words that rhyme with hostility
- sensibility
- utility
- facility
- ability
- disability
- compatibility
- possibility
- probability
- fertility
- fragility
- futility
- impossibility
36 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- senility
- virility
- vulnerability
- agility
- capability
- comfortability
- flexibility
- improbability
- indomitability
- instability
- juvenility
- nobility
- stability
- accommodability
- affability
- backward compatibility
- backwards compatibility
- bouncebackability
- chewability
- creatability
- debility
- diffability
- ductility
- forward compatibility
- forwards compatibility
- fuckability
- humility
- impressionability
- ineffability
- irascibility
- manageability
- mutility
- tabability
- unassailability
- upward compatibility
- versatility
Questions about hostility
- What does hostility mean?
- Hostility means the state of being hostile.
- What is hostility in Hindi?
- Hostility in Hindi is वैर (vair), शत्रुता (śatrutā), बैर (bair). See Hostility meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use hostility in a sentence?
- But with Goodison Park openly directing its full hostility towards Atkinson, Liverpool went ahead when Carroll turned in his first Premier League goal of the season after 70 minutes.
- What part of speech is hostility?
- Hostility is a noun.
- How do you pronounce hostility?
- Hostility is pronounced /hɒsˈtɪlɪti/ (UK).
- What is the plural of hostility?
- The plural of hostility is hostilities.
Words near hostility in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hostility (page history and authors); hostility (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); വിരോധം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); hostility (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hostility.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hostility.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hostility. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.