Anti-social or antisocial?
anti-social is an adjective meaning “Alternative spelling of antisocial”; antisocial is an adjective meaning “Unwilling or unable to cooperate and associate normally with other people”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. anti-social is written with a hyphen and antisocial as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between anti-social and antisocial?
| anti-social | antisocial | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative spelling of antisocial | Unwilling or unable to cooperate and associate normally with other people Antagonistic, hostile, or unfriendly toward others; menacing An antisocial individual |
| Example | none recorded | antisocial person |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˌæntiˈsəʊʃəl/ /ˌæntiˈsoʊʃəl/ /ˌæntaɪˈsoʊʃəl/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 1.3 times per million words |
Sources: anti-social and antisocial 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 anti-social and antisocial
anti-social
- 1
Alternative spelling of antisocial
antisocial
- 1
Unwilling or unable to cooperate and associate normally with other people
antisocial person
- 2
An antisocial individual
- 3
Antagonistic, hostile, or unfriendly toward others; menacing
- 4
Opposed to social order or the principles of society; hostile toward society
antisocial ideals
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, anti-social or antisocial?
anti-social is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; antisocial 1.3 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).