anti-Western

adjective

an·​ti-West·​ern ˌan-tē-ˈwe-stərn 

ˌan-tī-

variants or less commonly anti-West

ˌan-tē-ˈwest 

ˌan-tī-

: opposed to or hostile toward Western countries

anti-Western terrorists

anti-Western sentiment

… triggered an outpouring of anti-Western and anti-American feeling in Africa and at the United Nations.

—Jennifer Seymour Whitaker

… at moments during the film, I felt I was back there again, amid the anti-West slogans; the massive anti-American demonstrations in front of the U.S. embassy.

—Bernard Kalb

Examples of anti-Western in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This dependency not only strains U.S. resources but also fosters a culture of complacency among European allies, many of whom have taken to using their freedom and subsidized wealth to fund anti-Western NGOs. —Matt Robison, Newsweek, 18 Feb. 2025

And yet China’s leadership remains conflicted about Russia, fearing entanglement in Putin’s radical anti-Western schemes and eyeing with apprehension the prospect of a cold war that China neither wants nor knows how to fight. —Sergey Radchenko, Foreign Affairs, 18 Feb. 2025

But for a younger generation, who have only known Georgia as committed to EU and NATO membership and Russia as a threat, the anti-Western rhetoric doesn’t seem to land, and the government’s moves towards authoritarianism don’t seem to inspire fear. —Elizabeth McBride, CNN, 15 Feb. 2025

But this gave way, under the pressure of NATO expansion and of Russia’s traditional resentments and insecurities, to a determinedly anti-Western view that draws on Slavophile thought. —Rich Lowry, Twin Cities, 7 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1933, in the meaning defined above