hostility

noun

Simple meaning

Violent action that is hostile and usually unprovoked.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hahstiluhtee

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IPA pronunciation (US)

hɑsˈtɪləti

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

A hostile (very unfriendly) disposition
“He could not conceal his hostility.”
uncountable
The state of being hostile.
countable
A hostile action, especially a military action. See hostilities for specific plural definition.
Violent action that is hostile and usually unprovoked

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Uncommon
Typical Use: Neutral / general English

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More ways to use hostility

“He could not conceal his hostility.”noun
“He could no longer contain his hostility.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

open hostilitymutual hostilityactive hostility

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

hostilitiesnounPlural form
Fighting.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

irrational hostilitynounCompound term
Extreme prejudice.
latent hostilitynounCompound term
Feelings of hostility that are not manifest.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: hostile (very unfriendly) disposition

enmity

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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.