Repulsive means causing a strong feeling of disgust or revulsion. When something is repulsive, you instinctively want to get away from it. The smell of rotten eggs is repulsive. A pile of garbage covered in flies is repulsive. Watching someone chew with their mouth wide open might be repulsive to you.

The word comes from the idea of repelling or pushing away. Just as magnets with the same poles push each other apart, something repulsive makes you want to back away. A repulsive sight makes you turn your head. A repulsive smell makes you hold your nose.

People can have repulsive behavior too. Someone who constantly brags, lies, or treats others cruelly might seem repulsive to others. Their actions push people away, making others not want to be around them.

What's repulsive to one person might not bother another. Some people find spiders repulsive while others think they're fascinating. But when everyone agrees something is repulsive, like spoiled food or extreme cruelty, that's a sign our instincts are protecting us from something genuinely harmful or wrong.