Learn English – A comparison between the words “revolting”, “repugnant” and

word-meaning

Please help me to find the best words (possibly interchangeable synonyms) from among the words in the list bellow:

  • 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. This has been one of the most ……… actions of all time.

Explanation: I need one or more adjectives from my listed ones which directly indicate "a feeling of strong dislike and hate, but not 'horror'; just 'hate'".

-1- disgusting

-2- revolting

-3- repulsive

-4- repugnant

For me 'disgusting' and 'revolting' mean the same and mean 'something nauseating". But what I'm going to use here has nothing to do with 'the feeling of nausea'! I'm going to imply a feeling of 'strong dislike and hate' when you see or hear or somehow come across such a seen or such an event. I think both "repulsive and "repugnant" imply exactly the same meaning in my question.

Do you confirm me?

Best Answer

Let's start with some definitions - these all from Google as an example will reveal that technically there is not much difference between these words:

Disgusting: arousing revulsion or strong indignation.

Revolting: "causing intense disgust; disgusting"

Repulsive: "arousing intense distaste or disgust" or "of or relating to repulsion between physical objects"

Repugnant: "extremely distasteful; unacceptable" or "in conflict with; incompatible with."


Now...

Disgusting to me brings up an idea of a sickening feeling in your stomach. Though of course it is used to describe many things other than food, smells, etc. It comes from a French word meaning "taste" (dis- being a negative prefix).

Repulsive is derived from repel (Latin) which means to push away.

Revolting is derived from Latin revolvere which means to "roll back."

Repugnant to me immediately brings up an idea of a bad smell. This is from a French word meaning opposing.

So really, repulsive and revolting are about the same exact thing. Disgusting is more about a physical sensation than a general want to be away from something. Repugnant means to reject something strongly.

To be honest though, none of these words (at least by themselves) are strong enough to describe something that is among the worst things that has happened in human history, and the netural word "actions" would make any word weaker in that regard.

I would call this an atrocity (pl. atrocities), and a word to describe could be horrific.

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