Adverse or averse?
adverse is an adjective meaning “Unfavorable; antagonistic in purpose or effect; hostile; actively opposing…”; averse is an adjective meaning “Having a repugnance or opposition of mind”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) adverse is about 6.8 times as common as averse.
What is the difference between adverse and averse?
| adverse | averse | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective, verb |
| Meaning | Unfavorable; antagonistic in purpose or effect; hostile; actively opposing one's interests or wishes; contrary to one's welfare; acting against; working in an… Opposed; contrary; opposing one's interests or desire | Having a repugnance or opposition of mind Turned away or backward |
| Example | adverse criticism | The board is not averse to further talks |
| Pronunciation | /ˈæd.və(ɹ)s/ /ədˈvɜ(ɹ)s/ | /əˈvɜː(ɹ)s/ |
| In writing | 7.8 times per million words | 1.1 times per million words |
Sources: adverse and averse in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of adverse and averse
adverse
- 1
Unfavorable; antagonistic in purpose or effect; hostile; actively opposing one's interests or wishes; contrary to one's welfare; acting against; working in an opposing direction
adverse criticism
- 2
Opposed; contrary; opposing one's interests or desire
adverse circumstances
- 3
Opposite; confronting
the adverse page
averse
- 1
Having a repugnance or opposition of mind
The board is not averse to further talks
- 2
Turned away or backward
- 3
Aversant; of a hand: turned so as to show the back
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, adverse or averse?
adverse appears 7.8 times per million words; averse 1.1 times per million words.
adverse 7.8 times per million wordsaverse 1.1 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search adverse vs averse?
“adverse vs averse” is searched about 4,400 times a month on Google and 310 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“averse vs adverse”, “adverse or averse”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.