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hydrophobic

adjective

Simple meaning

Lacking affinity for water.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hydruhfohbik

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

haɪdɹəˈfoʊbɪk

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.

adjective

  1. physicschemistry

    Lacking affinity for water; tending to repel and not absorb water; tending not to dissolve in or mix with or be wetted by water

  2. Of, or having, hydrophobia (rabies).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Uncommon

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

hydrophobic interactionhydrophobic aminohydrophobic corehydrophobic surfacehydrophobic effecthydrophobic regionhydrophobic sidehydrophobic nature

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: lacking affinity for water

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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.