# bête noire

> English word · Noun · IPA /bɛt ˈnwɑː/

## Definitions
1. Someone or something that is unbearable and so particularly avoided or disliked; the bane of someone's existence; an object of aversion; an anathema.

## Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French bête noire (“(figurative) intolerable person”, literally “black beast”).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/bete-noire