These words refer to a strong contempt or revulsion towards something. Despise indicates intense aversion or moral disapproval: I despise situation comedies; those of us who despise bigotry. Loathe focuses mainly on aversion or dislike: Her husband simply loathed her cooking. Abhor , by contrast, is stronger in suggesting outright hatred and hence extends to moral opprobrium better than loathe , which has been weakened by its extensive use for simple distaste: abhorring the smug, priggish suburbanite and his moral hypocrisy.

Disdain suggests a feeling of superiority towards something or someone else; consequently, the word can suggest an unwarranted self-righteousness in addition to its reference to distaste: an airy disdain for all those less well-educated than she was. Scorn is a much stronger substitute for disdain , suggesting a haughty rejection or denunciation: scorning his proposal as though nothing could have been more repugnant to her.