MEANING
A general dislike, distrust, or contempt for humankind rather than just particular individuals.
Use it for
describing a character who distrusts people as a whole; distinguishing hostility to humanity from introversion; analyzing a narrator’s broadly contemptuous view of societyNames distrust or dislike directed at humanity generally, rather than irritation with one person or a preference for solitude. Writing functions: Psychological States.
Words that belong together
- a streak of misanthropy
- profess misanthropy
- misanthropy in the narrator
On the page
His professed misanthropy weakened whenever the neighbour’s children came to visit.
The critic distinguishes the narrator’s misanthropy from the novel’s more patient view of human failure.
Word forms
- Base
- misanthropy
Usage notes
Normally uncountable: misanthropy. No ordinary plural needed. It names an attitude, not a clinical diagnosis. Register: formal. Commonness: uncommon in everyday speech; established in criticism (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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