xenophobia

noun

xe·no·pho·bia ˌze-nə-ˈfō-bē-ə

ˌzē-

Synonyms of xenophobia next

: fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign

Did you know?

If you look back to the ancient Greek terms that underlie the word xenophobia, you'll discover that xenophobic individuals are literally "stranger fearing." Xenophobia, that elegant-sounding name for an aversion to persons unfamiliar, ultimately derives from two Greek terms: xenos, which can be translated as either "stranger" or "guest," and phobos, which means either "fear" or "flight." Phobos is the ultimate source of all English -phobia terms, but many of those were actually coined in English or New Latin using the combining form -phobia. Xenophobia itself came to us by way of New Latin and first appeared in print in English in the late 19th century.

Examples of xenophobia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web That was the one chance Republicans had to seize their party back from Trump (and just return to the normal, pre-Trump, run-of-the-mill racist dog-whistling, xenophobia, and warmongering). —

Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 1 Sep. 2023 Haiti's compounding crises have pushed thousands of refugees across the border into its more prosperous neighbor, a country with a long history of xenophobia against Haitian immigrants. —

Widlore Mérancourt, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Sep. 2023 Haiti’s compounding crises have pushed thousands of refugees across the border into its more prosperous neighbor, a country with a long history of xenophobia against Haitian immigrants. —

Amanda Coletta, Washington Post, 14 Sep. 2023 Historians say the massacre was driven by the government’s growing concerns about Korean independence, as well as xenophobia and anti-Korean sentiment among the general population. —

Takehiko Kambayashi, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Sep. 2023 That’s a potent premise in an era of Brexit nationalism and xenophobia, especially when Kate herself was initially drawn under Trowbridge’s spell. —

Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, 22 Apr. 2023 As the number of migrants and asylum-seekers has grown in recent years, so, too, has xenophobia. —

Caterina Morbiato, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Aug. 2023 A lot of that work was driven by me and my desire to tell stories around the xenophobia and bad science that surrounds that ingredient. —

Madison Feller, ELLE, 9 Aug. 2023 The United States should use its economic leverage, call out xenophobia and hate speech, and shine a spotlight on any irregularities as Poland’s parliamentary election campaign gets into full swing. —

Foreign Affairs, 24 July 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'xenophobia.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.