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anathema

[uh-nath-uh-muh] / əˈnæθ ə mə /
NOUN
something hated
Synonyms
Antonyms
STRONG




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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This was anathema to Busby the bluegrass purist.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

As somebody who was at the DOJ for 21 years, I find that to be anathema to how I thought about public service.

From Slate ● Jun. 9, 2026

“Self-consciousness and judgment—whether from yourself or other people—are anathema to flow, as is any form of distraction,” she writes.

From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2025

A cap is anathema to the players’ union.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2025

Trades where you fork over 2 percent a year just to be in them were anathema.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

As he pronounced anathemas on you and your kind, the smile peeked out beneath the sneer.

From Slate ● Dec. 16, 2011

The next year the spiritual leaders of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy withdrew the mutual anathemas that their predecessors had hurled at each other a full millennium before.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Welles-Houseman partnership ended badly, with Welles hurling blazing Sterno heaters at Producer Houseman and howling anathemas at him in that voice of Zeus.

From Time Magazine Archive

The next year, the Patriarch and the Pope officially revoked the mutual anathemas that had been hurled at the start of the schism between East and West in 1054.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Take your fare now, sir," interrupted the bustling little man at the door, stepping upon the wheel, in sublime indifference to the muttered anathemas, half addressed to him.

From The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion or, Familiar Letters to his Nephews by Henry Lunettes




Vocabulary lists containing anathema


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