otherness
Americannoun
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the state or fact of being different or distinct.
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the quality or state of being perceived or treated as different, foreign, strange, etc..
Certain ethnic groups embrace their otherness.
noun
Etymology
Origin of otherness
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ishmaelle finds this man’s presence a comfort and his otherness to be reassuring in the way it mirrors her own exile from home, her gender and from land itself.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 5, 2026
But the sense of otherness remained, even after Carlile married and had two kids with British charity director Catherine Shepherd.
From BBC • Oct. 23, 2025
As a Kryptonian raised on Earth by human parents, the character has been shown in stories where he struggles with his own sense of otherness and belonging because he straddles two worlds.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 12, 2025
Because I break bread with and claim to be part of this marked construct, this otherness, complete with jail time within the carceral state, allow me to enlighten you.
From Salon • Jan. 1, 2024
Some of my peers felt their otherness more acutely than I did.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
