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repellent

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

A substance or solution used to repel insects, dangerous animals, or other pests.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

rihpehluhnt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɹɪˈpɛlənt

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

  1. A substance or solution used to repel insects, dangerous animals, or other pests.

  2. A chemical substance that repels animals

  3. The power to repel

    “She knew many repellents to his advances.”

  4. A substance or treatment for a fabric etc to make it impervious to something.

adjective

  1. Resistant or impervious to something.

  2. Repulsive, inspiring aversion.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Formality
Technical
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Substance / chemical

insect repellentmosquito repellentbug repellent

Power / repels

repellent force

Compound

water repellent

Other combinations

shark repellentrepellent effectrepellent action

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • insect repellentnounCompound term

    A chemical substance that repels insects.

  • shark repellentnounCompound term

    A measure undertaken by a corporation to discourage unwanted takeover attempts.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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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.