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Definition of xenophobia
: fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign
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xenophobia was our Word of the Day on 04/20/2013. Hear the podcast!
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Recent Examples of xenophobia from the Web
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Match that with an ever more sprawling security state and growing top-down xenophobia, and measures that would have seemed implausibly harsh four years ago now seem highly likely.
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These artists used outer space to explore issues ranging from border control and xenophobia to social justice.
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Twitter can be a cesspool of xenophobia and sexism.
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The epidemic of hate and xenophobia would have walls built up, but the balm of the American idea builds a golden door where the tired, the poor and the huddled masses of the world are welcomed to seek out a new life.
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But there’s no doubt that the Klanswomen channeled their xenophobia into other spheres — the classroom, the school board, local and national politics.
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It’s unclear if the arsonists’ motive was run-of-the-mill xenophobia or anger that the Warao had drawn government attention unwanted by local drug pushers and human traffickers, whose trades are rampant in the Amazon.
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The group defines such activists as rejecting overtly white supremacist ideology but embracing misogyny and xenophobia.
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When analyzed individually, however, Britons were found to be most concerned with losing their European citizenship, whereas EU citizens were most concerned with uncertainty about the future, xenophobia, and discrimination.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'xenophobia.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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 (which traces back to phobos). Xenophobia itself came to us by way of New Latin and first appeared in print in English in 1903.
Origin and Etymology of xenophobia
New Latin
Other Psychology Terms
XENOPHOBIA Defined for English Language Learners
xenophobia
playDefinition of xenophobia for English Language Learners
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: fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners
Medical Dictionary
Learn More about xenophobia
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See words that rhyme with xenophobia Spanish Central: Translation of xenophobia Nglish: Translation of xenophobia for Spanish speakers
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