v. 1
To regard (someone or something) with strong contempt.
n. 1
A feeling of contempt or scorn.
The cat viewed the cheap supermarket catfood with disdain and stalked away.

Related words

Word family: disdainable disdainful

Forms

Past participle: disdained
e.g. disdained → despised, disregarded, slighted, abhorred…

Choose the right word

Disdain, Pride, Haughtiness, Supercilium, Super or Cilium?

Pride is an absorbing sense of one's own greatness; haughtiness feels one's own superiority to others; disdain sees contemptuously the inferiority of others to oneself. supercilium, eyebrow, from super, over and cilium, eyelid), silently manifests mingled haughtiness and disdain.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

disregard Tom showed reckless disregard for Mary's feelings.
despise Tonight you're gonna see why I despise that woman.
abhor People with physical disabilities abhor being pitied.
refuse I didn't really think Tom would refuse to do that.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
disdain		rising
disregard		falling
despise		rising
abhor		steady
refuse		steady

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

5 letters: pride¹, scout¹, scorn¹, sneer¹, abhor², spurn¹
6 letters: refuse², slight¹, reject², deride²
7 letters: despite², decline², despise², hauteur, contemn²
8 letters: contempt², despisal
9 letters: disregard³, patronage³, arrogance³, abominate, contumely
11 letters: abomination⁵, haughtiness
13 letters: condescension⁴
15 letters: misappreciation

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (abhor² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: dédaigner
Español: desdeñar