Animosity (3-7) Crossword Clue
Answer: ILL-FEELING (3-7 letters)
The answer to the crossword clue "Animosity (3-7)" with 10 letters is "ILL-FEELING". ILL-FEELING refers to a sense of resentment, hostility, or lingering bitterness between people, often arising from past disagreements, misunderstandings, or conflicts. It suggests an emotional tension that may not always be openly expressed but still affects interactions and attitudes.
Why “Ill-Feeling” Fits
Animosity: “Ill-feeling” is a standard noun phrase for hostile or resentful emotion between people, so it matches “animosity” very closely. Major dictionaries explicitly define “ill feeling” as animosity, resentment, or bad feeling felt toward another, aligning it directly with the clue’s sense of deep dislike or hostility.
A Bit of Background
“Ill-feeling” describes a sustained undercurrent of anger, resentment, or bad blood:
- Meaning and usage: Lexicons gloss ill-feeling as “feelings of anger or resentment,” “animosity or resentment felt toward another,” and group it with synonyms like hostility, ill will, bad blood, rancor, and bitterness. It often appears in contexts like “There was ill-feeling between the neighbours” or “His comments caused a lot of ill feeling,” signalling ongoing antagonism rather than a brief irritation.
- Relationship to animosity: Definitions of animosity themselves mention “ill will,” “ill feeling,” and “bad blood” as core components, showing that ill-feeling is one of the key ways animosity manifests in everyday relationships.
Crossword Solving Insight
For a clue like “Animosity (3-7)”:
- Definition match: “Animosity” is directly paraphrased by dictionaries as “ill will,” “ill feeling,” or “strong dislike with hostility,” making ILL-FEELING a textbook lexical equivalent.
- Enumeration: ILL-FEELING breaks neatly into (3-7): ILL (3) and FEELING (7), exactly matching the pattern given in the clue.
- Idiomatic strength: Because “ill-feeling” is a common, natural way to describe hostile or resentful relations between people, it is a highly satisfying and precise answer when “Animosity (3-7)” appears in a quick crossword.
This combination of perfect meaning match and exact letter pattern makes ILL-FEELING an excellent solution to “Animosity (3-7).”
