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.

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web That was almost like a branding exercise for American xenophobia, which is as old as time. —

Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 20 Apr. 2023 The trials were motivated, in part, by xenophobia. —

Brigit Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Aug. 2022 Frequent warfare encouraged xenophobia. —

Paul H. Rubin, WSJ, 5 Oct. 2021 Historian Erika Lee, Ph.D., has published a number of award-winning books on topics like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Asian American history, and a history of xenophobia in the United States. —

Lori Keong, SELF, 19 Mar. 2021 Reports of local incidents of discrimination and xenophobia, and violent assaults have been part of a recorded nationwide rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. —

Lauren Hernández, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 May 2022 In New York: A wave of xenophobia and violence has been compounded by the economic fallout of the pandemic, which has dealt a severe blow to New York’s Asian-American communities. —

New York Times, 9 Nov. 2021 Stop AAPIHate, a group that tracks acts of discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, found nearly 3,800 incidents of hate, discrimination or attacks on Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic. —

Jenna Ryu, USA TODAY, 19 Mar. 2021 From March 2020 to February 2021, Stop AAPI Hate, a group that tracks discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, received 3,800 reports of anti-Asian hate, with women reporting hate incidents 2.3 times more than men. —

Chris Kenning, The Courier-Journal, 19 Mar. 2021 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.