Word of the day · 22 May 2026
xenophobia
/ˌzɛnəˈfəʊbiə/
noun
Fear, dislike or prejudice directed at people from other countries or cultures.
In a sentence
- The report linked rising xenophobia to attacks on immigrant shops.
- Travel can soften xenophobia by replacing rumor with contact.
- Editors removed captions that stoked xenophobia after a border story.
In an image
Origin
From Greek xenos (stranger, foreigner) and phobos (fear).
History
Xenophobia names a social attitude, not a clinical phobia in the narrow medical sense. It shows up in politics, street talk and media when foreignness is cast as danger. Researchers separate it from ordinary cultural preference by the presence of hostility or discrimination. Searchers want a word for that pattern that is sharper than dislike.
Nearby words
prejudice · nativism · bigotry
Hostility that treats the outsider as a threat.