Distaste is a feeling of mild disgust or strong dislike toward something. When you have a distaste for mushrooms, you find them unpleasant and avoid eating them. When someone expresses distaste for dishonesty, they feel repelled by lying and cheating.

The word suggests more than simple dislike. There's a visceral quality to it, like the slight revulsion you might feel seeing someone chew with their mouth open. You might dislike doing homework, but you probably feel genuine distaste for something truly unpleasant, like cleaning up spoiled milk or watching someone be cruel.

People can feel distaste for foods, behaviors, ideas, or situations. A student might watch with distaste as classmates gang up on someone during recess. An artist might view mass-produced knockoffs of their work with distaste. The word often appears in phrases like “much to my distaste” (meaning something you found unpleasant happened) or “a distaste for violence” (a strong aversion to fighting or brutality).