How to Use hostility in a Sentence

hostility

noun
Definition of hostilitynext
Synonyms for hostilitynext
  • Both sides are calling for a cessation of hostilities.
  • They were both glad to have gotten through the divorce proceedings without any visible signs of hostility.
  • The townspeople showed open hostility to outsiders.
  • Peace talks were stalled after recent hostilities.
  • Still, many experts assume that at some point at least some form of pause in hostilities will come.
    — Howard Lafranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Nov. 2023
  • Her dogma is: The bigger your fabulous gets, the less room there is for hate and hostility.
    — Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 29 June 2023
  • Obviously, as time has gone on, the hostilities have opened up to more places.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024
  • There's more hostility since the Dobbs decision, in her view.
    — USA TODAY, 25 Mar. 2024
  • This is not the first time that Britain’s clubby media world has shown hostility to outsiders.
    — Mark Landler, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024
  • But over the last five months, this long-standing hostility has been upended.
    — Jamsheed K. Choksy, Foreign Affairs, 20 July 2023
  • The escalation of hostilities between the U.S. and the Houthis could upset those efforts.
    — Evan Halper, Washington Post, 31 Dec. 2023
  • The two decide to partner up, set their hostility aside and work together.
    — Christy Piña, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Aug. 2023
  • The 27-year-old said the fire, regardless of the motive behind it, dredged up the hostility to the community that’s been documented in the news.
    — Jireh Deng, Los Angeles Times, 28 Nov. 2023
  • Prices climbed on Tuesday over worries that exports through the region would be constrained by the hostilities.
    — WSJ, 27 Dec. 2023
  • He is still shaken because of the hostility with which he was targeted.
    — Parth M.n., WIRED, 17 July 2023
  • Any cash crunch, even if two years down the road, wasn’t addressed in Friday’s statement, nor was the hostility that followed a strike by teachers in March 2022 that shut down schools for eight days.
    — Jacqueline Pinedo, Sacramento Bee, 10 Feb. 2024
  • That type of hostility is at odds with the message the mayor has delivered since launching Inside Safe.
    — David Zahniser, Anchorage Daily News, 3 June 2023
  • As open hostilities loomed in mid-April, however, Boyd played a final card.
    — Richard Byrne, The New Republic, 25 Aug. 2023
  • Beyond the legal reasoning itself, at the heart of the doctrine is a hostility to using old powers in new ways.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Militias linked to the Iranian regime known for their anti-Israeli hostility have roamed Iraq for years.
    — Arash Azizi, The New York Review of Books, 22 July 2023
  • The Red Crescent Society said that a total of 118 aid trucks have now crossed into Gaza since the recent outbreak of hostilities.
    — WSJ, 31 Oct. 2023
  • Analysts contend that this new phase of hostilities may strengthen the Houthis, rather than weaken them.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 16 Jan. 2024
  • That’s not to say that there’s no hostility toward Asian Americans.
    — Kimmy Yam, NBC News, 15 May 2023
  • This weakens the church by building up dividing walls of hostility, rather than breaking them down.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Still, the hostilities between Polensek and Bibb prompted the mayor and his staff to boycott a City Council meeting earlier this month.
    — cleveland, 27 July 2023
  • Every aspect of his daily life there was dictated by the guards: the food, the daily routine, plus the ongoing hostility between inmates and the staff.
    — Steve Appleford, Rolling Stone, 17 Feb. 2024
  • But at the local public school there was less diversity and open racial hostility.
    — Rosalind Cummings-Yeates, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024
  • The fake heist is not only a callback to the hijacking of the chip truck from the series premiere (which also gets discussed later), but the end of the series-long hostilities between the Rez Dogs and Jackie’s group.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 13 Sep. 2023
  • Their clashes, a mix of hostility and affection, spite and delight, always felt well-matched.
    — Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 29 Feb. 2024
  • The eighty-some houses were split north/south into two rival camps, which existed in a state of near-permanent hostility.
    — Rick Steves, Chicago Tribune, 30 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hostility.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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