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What is the opposite of love?

It's not 'hate': Love involves people feeling strongly towards someone or something, and hate also involves people feeling strongly towards someone or something- it's just that the intentions of the feelings are very different.

So then the opposite would be 'apathy,' which involves no feelings at all. Is this correct?

Heartspring
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jahanvi Kashyap
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  • Opposite means litteraly "located at the other side" of something continuous. I.e going West is the opposite of going East; still, East and West are on the same vector, come from the same point of origin and the same action is used in both case ("going"). Two things cannot be in opposition if they don't share one or several central qualities. It's the direction of their effects that differentiates them. – P. O. May 26 '14 at 16:40
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    Antonyms depend on context. "The" antonym of man is woman, boy, god, robot, alien, teenager, cyborg, plant, tsar, mankind, animal — even though a man is an animal. Likewise, "the" antonym for love could be hate, or ignorance, or mild interest or sex or murder. Whenever you ask for an antonym or a synonym, always provide context, otherwise your question simply cannot be answered. – RegDwigнt May 26 '14 at 17:20
  • In tennis, it's fifteen. Or thirty.... – Edwin Ashworth May 26 '14 at 18:18
  • After the recent cleanup by @Heartspring, the question deserves to be reopened. Yes, it is based on an overly simple view of what it is to be the opposite of something, but confusion about such matters is common, so it is worthwhile for it to be dispelled on this site (it is noteworthy that the question received 52K views). – jsw29 Mar 26 '23 at 16:21
  • @jsw29 - I'm not sure whether it's worthy of reopening. Even after the edits, it's still more of a question asking whether the opposite of love is hate or apathy. Answers are likely to either be synonyms of the two options/philosophical ramblings/similar to this. – Heartspring Mar 26 '23 at 16:35

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The answer is yes, you are both right. A word can, and usually does have, multiple opposites. In fact any word that has a similar meaning to a word X is in a sense an opposite to X. Difference is opposition, a relation of oppositeness.

Drew
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Love is having strong emotions and wanting someone.

In a sense hate is your opposite because it means having strong emotions but not wanting someone.

If you want the opposites rolled into one word I would go with ambivalent which conveys someone you may love and hate.

If you want to travel the other side of the word vector, I would go with indifferent. Meaning you have no emotions towards a person.

RyeɃreḁd
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    Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel concurs with you: "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. " (source: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel) – Yulia V Apr 13 '18 at 21:09