These words are alike in denoting feelings of ill will or active dislike. Enmity is the quality or feeling that characterizes an enemy; it may be personal or impersonal, overt or hidden, but it is usually the result of a long-standing argument or of a prolonged series of conflicts, and hence is profoundly felt and not easily eradicated: The enmity between Arabs and Israelis threatened to break into open war at any time. Hostility embraces the actions by which enmity is displayed; it is often used in the plural: The hostilities were marked by brief periods of savage fighting. Hostility also refers to the state of being hostile, i.e., of feeling unfriendly or ill-disposed towards often to the point of menace: The hostility between the pro-war demonstrators and anti-war picketers was marked by several scuffles; the hostility with which the middle-class mothers in the park regarded the group of guitar-playing hippies.

Hatred is an intense dislike coupled with a strong desire to harm the object of one’s feeling. Hatred is deep-seated and malicious, and may be the end result of enmity or of prolonged hostility : the hatred felt for the Nazis by concentration-camp survivors; Discrimination and persecution have created an atmosphere of hatred between Negro and white in some parts of America. Hatred , however, can also be applied to things and conditions, and may depend on instinct or temperamental aversion: a cat's hatred of water.

Antagonism emphasizes mutuality of ill will between persons or groups, and often implies temperamental incompatibility. Unlike hostility , antagonism seldom implies that harmful actions will result: Actors sometimes resent too specific guidance from their directors, and a feeling of antagonism may spring up between them. Animus implies a feeling of ill will or antipathy so deep-rooted and intertwined with character and background that a coherent explanation of its cause is seldom possible: to harbour an animus against boys who wear their hair long; an animus against intellectuals in government.

Animosity and rancour are stronger than enmity , but often less enduring; animosity suggests vindictive anger, and rancour , bitter resentment.

• He nourished a feeling of animosity for his penny-pinching boss; A sergeant who felt rancour at being passed over for promotion by his commanding officer.

Rancour is intensely bitter enmity or hatred , often coupled with malice or even malevolence: Rancour over his party’s humiliating defeat at the polls led him to organize a military coup with the aim of completely destroying the party in power.