INHOSPITABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does inhospitable mean? 

• INHOSPITABLE (adjective)
  The adjective INHOSPITABLE has 2 senses:

1. unfavorable to life or growth

2. not hospitable

  Familiarity information: INHOSPITABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INHOSPITABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unfavorable to life or growth

Context example:

inhospitable mountain areas

Similar:

bare; barren; bleak; desolate; stark (providing no shelter or sustenance)

godforsaken; waste; wild (located in a dismal or remote area; desolate)

hostile; uncongenial; unfriendly (very unfavorable to life or growth)

water-washed (washed or swept with water especially waves of the sea)

windswept (open to or swept by wind)

Antonym:

hospitable (favorable to life and growth)

Derivation:

inhospitableness (the environmental condition in a region that lacks a favorable climate or terrain for life or growth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not hospitable

Context example:

her greeting was cold and inhospitable

Also:

unfriendly (not disposed to friendship or friendliness)

Antonym:

hospitable (disposed to treat guests and strangers with cordiality and generosity)

Derivation:

inhospitableness (having an unfriendly and inhospitable disposition)

inhospitality (unkind and inconsiderate welcome)

 Context examples 

Hydrogen is a greenhouse gas, and would make these close-in planets hot and inhospitable to life.

(New Clues to TRAPPIST-1 Planet Compositions, Atmospheres, NASA)

The surface of Mars is inhospitable for known forms of life.

(Curiosity Rover Finds Biologically Useful Nitrogen on Mars, NASA)

If ocean acidification causes larvae to be attracted to irrelevant sounds, they could end up in the wrong habitat or in inhospitable places.

(Fish larvae lose their way to safety in acidified oceans, SciDev.Net)

The exoplanet is thoroughly inhospitable — leftover energy from its formation and a powerful greenhouse effect heat HR8799e to a hostile temperature of roughly 1000 °C.

(GRAVITY instrument breaks new ground in exoplanet imaging, ESO)

Transforming the inhospitable Martian environment into a place astronauts could explore without life support is not possible without technology well beyond today’s capabilities.

(Mars Terraforming Not Possible Using Present-Day Technology, NASA)

The Moon is a pretty inhospitable place for humans but now scientists have figured out a way to get the Oxygen out of its dirt.

(Scientists Find Way to Extract Oxygen from Moon Dirt, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

"Couldn't you do it now?" asked Laurie, so suggestively that Jo shut the gate in his face with inhospitable haste, and called through the bars, "Go away, Teddy, I'm busy."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The clatter of waters, the scream of the eagle, and the howling of wolves the only sounds which broke upon the silence in that dreary and inhospitable region.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Up to her old tricks, she, too, had fled the inhospitable fires of the gods and gone back to her old refuge to give birth to her young.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

And now, my poor Watson, here we are, stranded and friendless in this inhospitable town, which we cannot leave without abandoning our case.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)