Hostile
Hostile adjective - Opposed to one's interests.
Usage example: the company's president vows to fight the hostile takeover by the giant corporation
Threatening and hostile are semantically related. In some cases you can use "Threatening" instead an adjective "Hostile".
Nearby Word: hostility
Threatening
Threatening adjective - Giving signs of immediate occurrence.
Hostile and threatening are semantically related. Sometimes you can use "Hostile" instead an adjective "Threatening".
Mutual synonyms
Related pairs
- unpleasant and hostile
- unpleasant and threatening
- offensive and hostile
- offensive and threatening
- forbidding and hostile
- forbidding and threatening
- baleful and hostile
- baleful and threatening
- nasty and hostile
- nasty and threatening
- bad and hostile
- bad and threatening
- unfavourable and hostile
- unfavourable and threatening
Both words in one sentence
- Miho, who's kind and polite to her subordinates, the family servants, and many other people she's just met, even when said people are rude, hostile or threatening to her.
Source: Nice Guy / Anime and Manga -
Later on, during the Nightmare Sequence, her journal is changed to a bunch of hostile ramblings and her texts are likewise threatening.
Source: Video Game / Life Is Strange -
At first it's an inconvenience threatening to ruin her cover, but then she weaponizes it against an hostile alien.
Cite this Source
Threatening and Hostile. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 15, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/hostile/threatening
Hostile & Threatening. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/hostile/threatening>.
Threatening or Hostile. 2016. Accessed August 15, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/hostile/threatening.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "hostile" and "threatening" have occurred on timeline