Repulsive

How to spell repulsive

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce repulsive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does repulsive mean?

1. adjectiveSo unpleasant or offensive that it provokes strong disgust or revulsion.
2. adjectiveTending to drive or push something away, as with a force between like charges or poles.

Repulsive in a sentence

• The rotting food in the abandoned fridge gave off a repulsive smell.

• Two north poles of a magnet exert a repulsive force on each other.

• He found the politician's dishonest tactics utterly repulsive.

• Like electric charges create a repulsive effect that keeps them separated.

Where does repulsive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb repellere, meaning 'to drive back' or 'to push away', formed from re- ('back') and pellere ('to drive or push'). The past participle of that verb was repulsus, which gave rise to the late Latin repulsivus, describing something that drives or pushes back. English borrowed the term through French in the early 1600s, at first in the literal physical sense of something exerting a force that repels. From there the meaning shifted figuratively to anything so distasteful that it 'pushes people away', that is, disgusting or loathsome. The same pellere root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'repel', 'expel', and 'propel', and remembering that shared puls/pel core helps fix the single l and the -ive ending in the spelling.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• puls (drive/push, from Latin pellere 'to drive')
• -ive (adjective suffix)