repugnance

/rɪˈpʌgnəns/

Other forms: repugnances

Repugnance means strong distaste for something. If you love animals, you probably feel repugnance for people who mistreat their horses.

The word repugnance comes from Latin root words, re, meaning back, and pugnare, to fight. When we use repugnance, we don't just mean the feeling of fighting back or resisting, but also a feeling of horror or sickness that causes you to resist in the first place. If something grosses you out, you feel repugnance for it. Repugnance can also express a feeling of moral horror: you probably feel repugnance at photographs of torture.

Definitions of repugnance

1. noun

   intense aversion
   synonyms: horror, repulsion, revulsion

   type of:

   disgust

   strong feelings of dislike
2. noun

   the relation between propositions that cannot both be true at the same time
   synonyms: incompatibility, inconsistency, mutual exclusiveness

   type of:

   contradictoriness

   the relation that exists when opposites cannot coexist