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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hostile.

Not friendly; appropriate to an enemy; showing the disposition of an enemy; showing ill will and malevolence or a desire to thwart and injure.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈhɒstaɪl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhɒstəl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhɑstəl/General-American/ˈhɑstaɪl/General-American
  1. Not friendly; appropriate to an enemy; showing the disposition of an enemy; showing ill will and malevolence or a desire to thwart and injure.

    a hostile force
    hostile intentions
  2. Aggressive; antagonistic.

  3. Unwilling.

  4. Being or relating to a hostile takeover.

    not-comparable
    Microsoft may go hostile in its bid for Yahoo! as soon as Friday, according to a published report.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French hostile, from Latin hostīlis, from hostis (“enemy”). Displaced Old English fēondlīċ.

noun/ˈhɒstaɪl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhɒstəl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhɑstəl/General-American/ˈhɑstaɪl/General-American
  1. An enemy.

    in-plural
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French hostile, from Latin hostīlis, from hostis (“enemy”). Displaced Old English fēondlīċ.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.