hostility

English

Etymology

From Middle English hostilitie, hostilite, from Old French hostilité, from Latin hostīlitās. By surface analysis, hostile +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɒˈstɪlɪti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /hɑˈstɪlɪti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlɪti

Noun

hostility (countable and uncountable, plural hostilities)

1. (uncountable) The state of being hostile.

   My resentment and anger towards you caused hostility and a division between us.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     There is no hostilitie so excellent, as that which is absolutely Christian.

   • 2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0-2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:

     But with Goodison Park openly directing its full hostility towards Atkinson, Liverpool went ahead when Carroll turned in his first Premier League goal of the season after 70 minutes.

   • 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 September 2013:

     The polarization of wealth and the polarization of attitudes to diversity are not unrelated. A key reason for popular hostility to immigrants is that to many people, particularly within working-class communities, immigration has become a symbol of unacceptable change.

2. (countable) A hostile action, especially a military action. See hostilities for specific plural definition.
   • 2006, Michael P. Young, Bearing Witness Against Sin:

     As the revivals died down in the 1740s, the revivalist camp made concessions to their opponents, admonished prorevivalists who continued with the hostilities, and generally sought to heal divisions.

Synonyms

• (state of being hostile): antagonism, opposition, enmity, animosity, antipathy, hatred, unfriendliness
• (military action): war, fighting, combat

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “state of being hostile”): amity, friendliness
• (antonym(s) of “military action”): peace

Derived terms

• horizontal hostility
• nonhostility
• prehostility

Related terms

• hostile

Translations

state of being hostile

Afrikaans: vyandigheid Albanian: armiqësi (sq) f Arabic: عَدَاوَة f (ʕadāwa), عَدَاء (ʕadāʔ) Armenian: թշնամություն (hy) (tʻšnamutʻyun) Azerbaijani: düşmənçilik, ədavət Belarusian: варо́жасць f (varóžascʹ), варажне́ча f (varažnjéča), непрыя́знасць f (njepryjáznascʹ) Bengali: বিবাদ (bn) (bibad), শত্রুতা (bn) (śotruta) Bulgarian: вражде́бност (bg) f (vraždébnost), вражда́ (bg) f (vraždá), неприя́зън (bg) f (neprijázǎn) Catalan: hostilitat (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 敵意 / 敌意 (zh) (díyì) Czech: nepřátelství (cs) n Danish: fjendtlighed c Dutch: hostiliteit (nl) f, vijandigheid (nl) f, vijandschap (nl) f Esperanto: malamikeco Estonian: vaenulikkus Finnish: vihamielisyys (fi) French: hostilité (fr) f Georgian: მტრობა (mṭroba) German: Feindseligkeit (de) f, Feindschaft (de) f Greek: εχθρότητα (el) f (echthrótita), εχθρικότητα (el) f (echthrikótita) Ancient: ἔχθρα f (ékhthra) Hebrew: אֵיבָה (he) f (eyvá) Hindi: वैर (hi) m (vair), शत्रुता (hi) f (śatrutā), बैर (hi) m (bair) Hungarian: viszály (hu), ellenségeskedés (hu) Icelandic: fjandskapur m, óvild f, óvinátta f Italian: ostilità (it) f Japanese: 敵対 (ja) (てきたい, tekitai), 敵意 (ja) (てきい, tekii) Kazakh: ғадауат (ğadauat), дұшпандық (dūşpandyq), қастық (qastyq) Korean: 적의 (ko) (jeogui), 적대 (ko) (jeokdae) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: dijminatî (ku), neyarî (ku) Kyrgyz: душмандык (ky) (duşmandık), кастык (kastık) Latin: hostīlitās f Latvian: ienaids (lv) m Lithuanian: priešiškumas m Macedonian: непријателство n (neprijatelstvo) Malay: permusuhan (ms)​ Maori: whakariri Middle English: yvel wille Mongolian: Cyrillic: дайсагнал (mn) (dajsagnal) Mongolian: ᠳᠠᠶᠢᠰᠤᠩᠨᠠᠯ (dayisungnal) Norwegian: Bokmål: fiendtlighet m or f Occitan: ostilitat (oc) f Old Church Slavonic: Cyrillic: вражьда f (vražĭda) Old English: fēondlīcnes f Ottoman Turkish: عداوه (adâve), عداوت (adâvet), دشمنلك (düşmenlik), خصومت (husûmet) Pashto: دښمني (ps) f (dox̌maní), عداوت (ps) m (adāwát) Persian: دشمنی (fa) (došmani), عداوت (fa) ('adâvat), خصومت (fa) (xosumat) Polish: wrogość (pl) f, nieprzyjaźń f Portuguese: hostilidade (pt) f Romanian: ostilitate (ro) f, dușmănie (ro) f Russian: вражде́бность (ru) f (vraždébnostʹ), вражда́ (ru) f (vraždá), неприя́тие (ru) n (neprijátije), неприя́знь (ru) f (neprijáznʹ) Sanskrit: इरस् (sa) n (iras), द्वेषस् (sa) n (dveṣas) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: непријатѐљство n Roman: neprijatèljstvo (sh) n Slovak: nepriateľstvo n Slovene: sovrȃštvo (sl) n Spanish: hostilidad (es) f Swahili: uadui (sw) Swedish: fientlighet (sv) Tajik: душманӣ (tg) (dušmani), адоват (adovat), хусумат (xusumat) Tatar: дошманлык (tt) (doşmanlıq) Tocharian B: sanuññe Turkish: düşmanlık (tr), yağılık (tr), husumet (tr), hasımlık (tr), adavet (tr) (archaic) Turkmen: duşmançylyk Ukrainian: воро́жість f (voróžistʹ), ворожне́ча f (vorožnéča), непри́язнь f (neprýjaznʹ), ворожда́ f (voroždá) (poetic) Urdu: دشمنی f (duśmanī), عداوت f ('adāvat) Uyghur: دۈشمەنلىك (düshmenlik) Uzbek: dushmanlik (uz), adovat (uz)

hostile action, especially a military action

Afrikaans: vyandigheid Bengali: বিবাদ (bn) (bibad) Catalan: hostilitat (ca) f Dutch: vijandigheid (nl) f, vijandelijkheid (nl) f Finnish: vihamielinen teko; sotatoimi (fi) Greek: εχθροπραξία (el) f (echthropraxía) Japanese: 事変 (ja) (じへん, jihen) Malay: pertempuran (ms)​ Russian: вражде́бный акт m (vraždébnyj akt) Spanish: hostilidad (es) f Turkish: saldırgan hareket

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Latin: (please verify) hostilitas Romanian: (please verify) ostilitate (ro) f