What it means
نفرت (nefrat) is hatred or loathing, a strong noun for intense repulsion. The word comes from the Arabic root n-f-r (نفر), meaning to flee, to be driven away, to feel repelled. Persian borrowed it directly, and it is now one of the most common neutral-register words for hatred in the language. نفرت is stronger than بیعلاقگی (bi-alâqegi, indifference) and carries a visceral quality that the milder انزجار (enzejâr, revulsion) sometimes lacks. The verb built from it is نفرت داشتن (nefrat dâshtan, to have hatred for) or نفرت پیدا کردن (nefrat peydâ kardan, to develop hatred toward). Its antonym is عشق (eshq, love) or علاقه (alâqe, affection).
How to use it
- از دروغ نفرت دارم (az dorug nefrat dâram) “I hate lying”
- نفرتش از قدرت واضح بود (nefrat-ash az qodrat vâzeh bud) “His hatred of power was obvious”
- به مرور نفرت پیدا کردم (be moror nefrat peydâ kardam) “Over time I came to loathe it”
- نفرت چیزی رو حل نمیکنه (nefrat chizi ro hall nemikone) “Hatred doesn’t solve anything”
Cultural note
نفرت appears frequently in Persian political speech, literature, and journalism because it is the formal-neutral word that carries serious weight without sounding archaic. In classical Persian poetry, the word and its root appear in contexts of divine or moral repulsion, the soul’s turning away from sin or injustice. In contemporary usage it is ordinary enough to appear in a sentence about disliking a food, though for mild dislikes بدم میآد (badam miyâd, I don’t like it) is far more natural in speech.