abhor

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 1, 2024 is:

abhor • \ub-HOR\ • verb

Abhor is synonymous with loathe. Something or someone who is abhorred is regarded with extreme disgust or hatred.

// Mariah is an animal rights activist who abhors any and all mistreatment of animals.

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Examples:

"While Anne's embarrassed by the slightest bit of conflict, disruptive Jenny abhors obedience—she's a roll of Mentos dropped into her sister's placid Diet Coke life." — Peter Debruge, Variety, 1 Nov. 2023

Did you know?

Those who shudder to think about having to clean dirty carpets might fairly be said to abhor a vacuum. Nature is often said to abhor a vacuum as well, albeit a different one—according to plenists, there is always some matter or material floating around ready to fill a void. Interior designers afflicted with horror vacui abhor vacuums as well, being unable to tolerate empty spaces in artistic designs. In each of these cases, abhor implies strong feelings of disgust and aversion, a degree of distaste embedded in the word's history: the word's Latin source, the verb abhorrēre, comes from the prefix ab- ("from, away") and the verb horrēre ("to bristle, shiver, or shudder"). Horrēre is also the source of the English words horror, horrify, and horrible.