abhorrent

Borrowed from Latin abhorrēns, abhorrēntis, present active participle of abhorreō (“abhor”). Equivalent to abhor +‎ -ent.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /æbˈ(h)ɒɹ.ənt/, /əbˈ(h)ɒɹ.ənt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /æbˈhɔɹ.ənt/
• (New York City, Philadelphia) IPA^(key): /æbˈhɑɹ.ənt/
• Rhymes: -ɒɹənt

abhorrent (comparative more abhorrent, superlative most abhorrent)

1. (archaic) Inconsistent with, or far removed from, something; strongly opposed. [Late 16^th century.]^[1]

   abhorrent thoughts

   • 1803, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France‎^[1]:

     The persons most abhorrent from blood, and treason, and arbitrary confiscation, might remain silent spectators of this civil war between the vices.

2. Contrary to something; discordant. [Mid 17^th century.]^[1]
   • 1827, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline And Fall of the Roman Empire‎^[2]:

     This legal, and, as it should seem, injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to out stricter principles, was received with a very faint murmur, ...

   • 1990, James Hankins, Plato in the Italian Renaissance‎^[3]:

     In establishing his ideal state he expressed some opinions utterly abhorrent to our customs and ways of living. He believed, for instance, that all wives should be held in common ... with the result that no one could tell his own children from those of a perfect stranger.

3. Abhorring; detesting; having or showing abhorrence; loathing. [Mid 18^th century.]^[1]
5. Detestable or repugnant. [Early 19^th century.]^[1]
   • 1833, Isaac Taylor, Fanaticism‎^[4]:

     If Pride, abhorrent as it is, and if Ambition, ...

   • 1936, Paul E. More, On Being Human‎^[5]:

     That, I protest, is a doctrine psychologically impossible and ethically abhorrent.

   • 1822, Richard Clover, Leonidas‎^[6]:

     The arts of pleasure in despotic courts I spurn, abhorrent; in a spotless heart I look for pleasure.

• (opposed): abhorrent is typically followed by from.
• (contrary): abhorrent is followed by to.

• “abhorrent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “abhorrent”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “abhorrent”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• earth-born, earthborn

abhorrent

1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of abhorrer

abhorrent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of abhorreō