Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Arousing disgust or aversion; offensive or repulsive: morally repugnant behavior.
- adj. Logic Contradictory; inconsistent.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Opposing; resisting; refractory; disposed to oppose or antagonize.
- Standing or being in opposition; opposite; contrary; contradictory; at variance; inconsistent.
- In law, contrary to or inconsistent with another part of the same document or law, or of another which must be construed with it: generally used of a clause inconsistent with some other clause or with the general object of the instrument.
- Causing mental antagonism or aversion; highly distasteful; offensive.
- Synonyms Opposed, irreconcilable.
- Disagreeable. See antipathy.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Disposed to fight against; hostile; at war with; being at variance; contrary; inconsistent; refractory; disobedient; also, distasteful in a high degree; offensive; -- usually followed by
to , rarely and less properly bywith .
WordNet 3.0
- adj. offensive to the mind
Etymologies
- From Old French repugnant, borrowed from Latin repugnans, present participle of repugnare ("to oppose, to fight against"), from re- ("back, against") + pugnare ("to fight"); see pugnacious. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, antagonistic, from Old French, from Latin repugnāns, repugnant-, present participle of repugnāre, to fight against; see repugn. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We find the term repugnant and impossible to define.”
“The leaders of two Baltic countries aren't coming, in part because the Soviet Union's World War II victory marked the beginning of what they call "an occupation," a term repugnant to Moscow.”
“Also morally repugnant is your view that not having your car be keyed should be considered a right, but not being discriminated against in employment or public accommodations should be considered, as you called it, a “mere preference.””
““Also morally repugnant is your view that the right of racists to discriminate in employment or public accommodations has a positive value.””
“Also morally repugnant is your view that the right of racists to discriminate in employment or public accommodations has a positive value.”
““Also morally repugnant is your view that not having your car be keyed should be considered a right, but not being discriminated against in employment or public accommodations should be considered, as you called it, a “mere preference.”””
“What's repugnant is the attempt to use people's desire to help the sick as a Trojan horse for a eugenic agenda.”
“ZAHN: Now, the use of the word repugnant, I don't think that's the first time we've heard that.”
“It was, however, unanimously resolved that in future the expression "industrial inaction" be always used in such connection, as "action" was a word repugnant to all right-thinking Lead-Swingers, and, anyhow, calculated in such a context to give rise to confusion of thought.”
“The final "victim" -- to employ a word repugnant in the highest degree to my feelings -- must be my cousin, Stephen Elliott.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘repugnant’.
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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If You Can't Say Anything Nice
Negative attributes or actions.
biased, cantankerous, caustic, contumacious, dilatory, disdain, duplicitous, fastidious, fractious, glower, haughty, imperious and 22 more...
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And i thought my words were "bad"!
malevolent, machiavellian, duplicitous, deceitful, rancorous, spiteful, malignant, cunning, vindictive, tyrannical, imperious, despotic and 10 more...
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Neww
specious, disdainfully, vehemently, in lieu of, dismissive, perpetual, preposterous, impasse, fathom, conversely, repugnant, clogged and 142 more...
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Random Words
lochia, confused, innoxious, naive, cockatrice, derisive, parsley, passive, casual, football, innuendo, Rumanian and 200 more...
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dharma66's list
words that pique my interest either by meaning, pronunciation, or spelling, and words that otherwise tickle my fancy!!
pique, elusive, serendipity, nefarious, redundant, pseudoscientific, obsequious, flack, quandary, impervious, perchance, translucent and 168 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3063 more... -
Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Appellations
States of ment.
off kilter, fervent, nonchalant, exuberant, turbid, verbose, eloquent, vicarious, gallivant, orotund, amalgamate, accentuate and 285 more...
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WORDS I HATE!!!
THIS ARE WORDS WICH I FEEL SICK BY SAYING THEM...
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Charlatan's list
oscillate, repugnant, equivocate
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WL_2
repulsion, loath, repugnant, despicable, odious, abhorrence, execrable, detestable, scurvy, animosity, rancor, insurgent and 83 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for repugnant.

uselessness But pugs are cute! ;-) Sep 23, 2007
herotuesday So descriptive! The ultimate expression of disgust. I think it's the whole "pug" moving into the "nant" part... very harsh-sounding. Sep 23, 2007