despise
verb
Simple meaning
To dislike someone or something very much.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihspyzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪsˈpaɪz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
To regard with contempt or scorn.
To disregard or ignore.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To regard with contempt or scorn.
In this sense, despise is a very strong, expressive word and expresses hatred outright, which is much stronger than dislike.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Strongly negative / painful
- Usage feel
- Blunt and forceful
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Despise is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use despise
- “He despises the people he has to work for.”verb
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.